Navy Recognizes Columbia Astronaut

Doc Mirelson
Headquarters, Washington July 9, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-065

NAVY RECOGNIZES COLUMBIA ASTRONAUT

The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) is dedicating
and naming the organization's redesigned auditorium to honor
NASA astronaut Laurel Clark, a crewmember on the Space
Shuttle Columbia. Clark, a captain and flight surgeon in the
U.S. Navy medical corps, perished along with six other
astronaut crew members on Feb. 1, when the Columbia broke up
over Texas.

The dedication ceremony is Friday, July 11 at 2:30 p.m. The
ceremony will be in the Building 10 amphitheater, NNMC, 8901
Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, Md.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, Associate Administrator for
Space Flight Bill Readdy, and several astronauts will
represent the agency at the dedication ceremony.

By dedicating the auditorium in Clark's name, the NNMC
salutes and celebrates her memory, and the courage,
commitment, and dedication she demonstrated to Navy medicine
and NASA's human space flight program through the life she
led. Clark was an accomplished and experienced Naval Flight
Surgeon, and she completed NNMC's Graduate Medical Education
program.

Media desiring access to the ceremony should contact NNMC
public affairs prior to 10 a.m. EDT, July 11 at: 301/295-
5727.


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