NASA Honors Apollo Astronaut Al Worden with Moon Rock

July 28, 2009

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600


Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468


MEDIA ADVISORY: M09-139

NASA HONORS APOLLO ASTRONAUT AL WORDEN WITH MOON ROCK

WASHINGTON -- NASA will honor Apollo astronaut Al Worden with the
presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his
contributions to the U.S. space program.

Worden will receive the award during a ceremony Thursday, July 30, at
4 p.m. EDT. The ceremony will be held at the Apollo Saturn V Center
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where the
moon rock will be displayed.

Reporters interested in covering the ceremony should contact Andrea
Farmer at 321-449-4318 or Jillian McRae at 321-449-4273.

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 goal of going to the moon. The award
is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display. The
rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six
Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Those astronauts who receive
the award will then present the award to a museum of their choice,
where the moon rock will be placed for public display.

Worden served as command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission,
which
set several moon records for NASA, including the longest lunar
surface stay time, the longest lunar extravehicular activity and the
first use of a lunar roving vehicle. Worden spent 38 minutes in a
spacewalk outside the command module and logged a total of 295 hours,
11 minutes in space during the mission.

Worden was born in Jackson, Mich. He received a bachelor of military
science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point,
N.Y., in 1955, and master of science degrees in astronautical and
aeronautical engineering and instrumentation engineering from the
University of Michigan in 1963.

For more biographical information about Worden, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/worden-am.html

NASA Television will broadcast a Video File of the event. For NASA TV
streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the Apollo Saturn V Center, visit:

http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

For information about and pictures of the NASA Ambassador of
Exploration Award, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ofEphotos.html

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