Six key JPL staff members have been awarded special NASA honors for their work in leading successful space missions, cutting mission costs and improving the way the space agency does business.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin presented the NASA Honor Awards for leadership recognition June 2 in Pasadena.
John Casani, JPL's chief engineer, and former project manager of the Voyager and Galileo missions, received the agency's Exceptional Achievement Medal for organizing and leading the Lab's successful ISO 9001 certification campaign, culminating his career of shaping and implementing the Mariner, Voyager, Galileo and Cassini-Huygens spacecraft. The medal honors "significant, specific accomplishment or contribution clearly characterized by a substantial and significant improvement in operations, efficiency, service, financial savings, science or technology that contributes to the NASA mission."
Receiving the Outstanding Leadership Medal, awarded for "notably outstanding leadership that has had a pronounced effect on NASA technical or administrative programs," were Stardust Project Manager Dr. Kenneth Atkins, Deep Space 1 Project Manager David Lehman and Mars '98 Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander Project Manager Dr. John McNamee.
The Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor that NASA confers, was awarded to Space and Earth Sciences Director Dr. Charles Elachi for his management of the JPL Space and Earth Sciences Program, and for his vision and leadership in creating a new architecture for JPL's Mars Exploration Program. The honor also went to Norm Haynes for his excellent systems engineering, mission design and project management contributions to JPL flight projects and his leadership of the Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate and the Mars Exploration Directorate.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-5011