NASA Honors Apollo Astronaut Scott Carpenter

Nov. 6, 2007

David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730
david.steitz@xxxxxxxx

Laura Holtman
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
303-370-6407
laura.holtman@xxxxxxxx

RELEASE: M07-154

NASA HONORS APOLLO ASTRONAUT SCOTT CARPENTER

DENVER - NASA will honor Mercury astronaut and retired Navy Commander
Scott Carpenter with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration
Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program. Carpenter will
receive the award during a evening ceremony on Nov. 10 at the Denver
Museum of Nature & Science. The award will remain at the museum for
display. Reporters who would like to attend the ceremony should
contact Laura Holtman at 303-370-6407 by 3 p.m. MST Friday, Nov. 9.

The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite and mounted for public
display as inspiration to a new generation of explorers who will help
return humans to the moon and eventually travel on to Mars and
beyond. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of samples collected
during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first
generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space
programs for realizing America's vision of going to the moon. NASA
also is recognizing several other key individuals who played
significant roles in the early space programs.

NASA chose Carpenter as a Project Mercury astronaut in 1959. During
his historic flight in 1962, he orbited the Earth three times and
manually controlled his capsule's splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
Following his space flight, Carpenter continued his naval career and
conducted pioneering experiments as an aquanaut. For information
about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

To learn more about Scott Carpenter on the Web, visit:

http://www.scottcarpenter.com


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