Space Flight Awareness Award Presented to Lauderdale and Weston

Tim Lauderdale and Leigh Weston, Aerospace Systems, were recently honored as recipients of the NASA Space Flight Awareness Award.  This prestigious award is given for an individual’s significant contributions to the space program.

As recipients, Lauderdale and Weston attended a special ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Hotel in Orlando, Fla., where they were each presented with a certificate, pin, and shuttle model.  Weston also opted to take a tour of Kennedy Space Center with other recipients.  Due to the STS-133 launch being delayed until Feb. 24, neither recipient was able to return to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to view the Space Shuttle Discovery’s final liftoff. 

Lauderdale received the award for his outstanding leadership and exceptional engineering support to NASA MSFC on multiple contracts benefitting the Ares Upper Stage Integrated Vehicle Ground Vibration Test development for Stage Operations and the Materials Science Research Rack (MSRR) for International Space Station (ISS) payloads.  He served as lead engineer for the first effort and was responsible for the assembly and integration of the Ground Rack, Payload Training Unit, and Flight Rack for MSRR-1.

According to his nominator, Lauderdale “demonstrated tireless commitment to meeting requirements, verification, integration, and testing for hardware and test article development benefitting both science missions and manned space exploration launch systems.”

Weston, who serves as a Payload Operations Integrator, was presented the award for her dedicated efforts, positive “can-do” attitude, and exemplary leadership that helped to ensure the successful completion of flight and ground product development, Certification of Flight Readiness, and Level III schedule milestones in support of Increments 21 and 22.

“Leigh consistently exceeded the requirements of her job assignment, demonstrating meticulous attention to detail and excellent people skills that were essential in getting teams to work together more efficiently,” said her nominator.  “Due to her vast knowledge of flight and ground product development and integration, Leigh was also instrumental in identifying potential issues and concerns as the Payload Operations Integration representative to the ISS Payload Program Office.”

The Space Flight Awareness Award is the highest tribute paid by NASA to individuals in NASA, DoD, and industry for their dedication to quality work and flight safety.