NASA Honors Veteran Gemini-Apollo Astronaut James McDivitt

NASA will honor former astronaut James (Jim) McDivitt for his involvement in the Gemini and Apollo space programs with the presentation of the Ambassador of Exploration Award. The ceremony is at 3:30 p.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 6, in the Boeing Auditorium, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Building, University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, Mich.

NASA is presenting the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the astronauts and other key individuals 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.

McDivitt was the command pilot for Gemini 4 in 1965. He was commander of Apollo 9, a 10-day Earth orbital mission, launched March 3, 1969. This was the first flight of the complete set of Apollo hardware and the Lunar Module. In August 1969 he became manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program. He was program manager for Apollo 12 through 16. McDivitt’s award will be displayed at the College of Engineering.

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