NASA Honors Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell

N ASA will honor former astronaut Edgar Mitchell for his involvement in the Apollo space program with the presentation of the Ambassador of Exploration Award at 4 p.m. EST, Sunday, Feb. 5 at the South Florida Science Museum, 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, Fla.

NASA is presenting the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the 38 astronauts who participated in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs for realizing America’s vision of space exploration from 1961 to 1972. The award is a small sample of lunar material encased in Lucite and mounted for public display. The material is part of the 842 pounds of samples brought back to Earth during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Mitchell's award will be displayed at the museum.

Mitchell was the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 14 moon mission, Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1971. Crewmates Alan Shepherd and Stuart Roosa also participated in the third lunar landing. The team collected more than 100 pounds of lunar samples during their record setting 33 hours on the moon's surface.

For information about the museum and media access to the event, contact: Elizabeth Dashiell at: (561) 832-1988; x223.