The Silver Snoopy Finally Makes an Appearance After Three Years

NASA Johnson Space Center’s Space Flight Awareness (SFA) team hosted its last group Silver Snoopy award ceremony on Aug. 8, 2019. Little did the team know that this would mark almost a three-year hiatus for the lovable Peanuts character during the COVID-19 pandemic!

While the SFA team shifted to a virtual environment alongside most of the nation, the special nature of this award did not translate well into a virtual ceremony. Since its inception during the Apollo era in 1968, the Silver Snoopy pin is always hand-delivered by an astronaut to recognize recipients for their direct impact on flight safety. After many conversations, the Astronaut Office and the agency SFA leads placed Silver Snoopy award ceremonies on hold. It wasn’t until August 2021 that the team resumed conversations about organizing small, socially distanced award ceremonies for the upcoming new year.

To celebrate the 2020-2021 Silver Snoopy award recipients, JSC hosted two small events on March 24, 2022. The awards were presented by Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, Johnson Deputy Director Stephen Koerner, and NASA astronaut Megan McArthur.

SFA provides award recipients with Silver Snoopy lapel pins that were flown in space. During the March ceremonies, most of the award recipients received Snoopy pins flown in May 2009, during McArthur’s STS-125 mission. One pin, however, came from McArthur’s personal collection of pins flown on the SpaceX Crew-2 mission from April 23 to Nov. 8, 2021. This pin was awarded to Rachel Barry with Barrios Technology.

Of the aerospace program workforce, less than 1% receive this award annually. A total of 35 award recipients were honored during the March events. SFA plans to host a third ceremony in May to honor the 18 remaining recipients from 2021.

With safety at the forefront, the team limited the March ceremonies to 50 socially distanced on-site guests while livestreaming the event for those who could not attend in person. One award recipient, Lingfeng Deng with MDA Corporation, was unable to travel because of COVID restrictions. SFA patched him into the ceremony virtually so he could receive his award while his friends and family watched.

Thanks to the Silver Snoopy recipients’ dedication and innovation, NASA continues to reach amazing milestones in pursuit of safe human space exploration. McArthur best summarized the awardees during her speech.

“When I walk into a room and I see people wearing a Silver Snoopy award, I think several things,” McArthur said. “I think ‘problem solver.’ I think ‘innovator.’ I think ‘collaborator.’ I think ‘leader,’ and I think — we are getting some stuff done today!”

Group photo from the first SFA award ceremony on March 24, 2022. Top left to bottom right: Richard Fair, Cody Kelly, John Raines, Jason August, Eric Ray, Jacque Thornton, Thomas Leimkuehler, Benjamin Martin, Maurice Lehmann, Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, Rodrigo Devivar, David Delafuente, Jason Sturgis, Hoa N. Diep, Arturo Martinez, Brian Van Genderen, Kevin Hames, Elizabeth Pattison Ozdogan, and NASA astronaut Megan McArthur. Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz

Group photo from the second SFA award ceremony on March 24, 2022. Top left to bottom right: Susan Schuh, Melissa Rhodes, Krystin Mitchell, Jorge Salazar, Mark Riedel, Cathy Johns, Russell Derrick, Oleg Besyakov, Johnson Deputy Director Stephen Koerner, Megan Stoler, Katherine Chen, Nzingah Gross, Kathy Messersmith, Lynda Gavin, Alesha Ridley, Lorena Calderon, and McArthur. Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz