NASA Distinguished Service Medal

• 1. Introduction

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  The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the top honor that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can give, and one astronaut collected it three separate times. That is rare for a decoration meant to recognize contributions so extraordinary that nothing else would do. Behind the medal sits a long list of names, from test pilots to flight directors to scientists. Why was the bar set so high? Where did the medal come from, and who has actually earned it? The answers begin with the rules for who qualifies.

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• 2. The Highest Bar

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  Substantial progress toward the NASA mission is the test every recipient must meet, and it must come from a personal contribution. The medal can go to any member of the federal government. That includes military astronauts as well as civilian employees.

  The qualities named for the award are distinguished service, ability, or courage. The achievement has to be so exceptional that other forms of recognition would fall short.

  In practice, senior NASA administrators have received it. So have mission control leaders, along with astronauts who finished several successful space flights.

  Above it sits one more honor. On NASA's recommendation, the president may present astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

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• 3. Inherited Honor

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  Before NASA existed, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics gave out this medal. When NASA took over, the decoration came along with the rest of the inheritance.

  The first NASA design, called type I, carried the NASA seal. It was issued from 1959 until 1964. In 1964 the current type II medal took its place.

  The prestige of the award has a practical consequence. The decoration is authorized for wear on active United States military uniforms, as is the NASA Space Flight Medal.

  The very first name on the recipient roll is from 1959. It belongs to John W. Crowley, who held the title of NASA Director of Aeronautical and Space Research.

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• 4. Pioneers and Test Pilots

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  Alan Shepard received the medal on the 8th of May 1961. Virgil I. Grissom followed on the 22nd of July of the same year.

  The year 1962 brought a much larger group. John Glenn, Robert Gilruth, Scott Carpenter, and Wally Schirra were all honored, with Schirra's presentation dated the 15th of October. Walter C. Williams joined them.

  Three X-15 pilots appear that year as well: Forrest S. Petersen, Robert White, and Joseph A. Walker. Their inclusion shows that the medal reached beyond astronauts to pilots who flew experimental aircraft.

  Gordon Cooper is the only name listed for 1963.

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• 5. Second Helpings

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  Some people earned the medal more than once. Schirra's second came on the 30th of December 1965, and a third arrived in 2008, long after his first.

  Shepard, honored in 1961, received his second in 1971. James A. Lovell and David R. Scott were also second-time recipients around then, and John W. Young received a second in 1972.

  The pattern was not limited to astronauts. Walter C. Williams, a 1962 honoree, was recognized again in 1981, the same year as David Williamson Jr. Willis H. Shapley received his second award in 1988.

  Joseph H Rothenberg appears in the list twice as well, in 1994 and again in 2000.

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• 6. A Crowded Roll

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  James Webb and Alexander Flax were honored in 1968. After that, the list swells.

  The 1969 and 1970 entries run together in one block. Edwin E. Aldrin, Neil A. Armstrong, Alan L. Bean, and Michael Collins are all listed there. So are Charles Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, Fred W. Haise, John L. Swigert, and Thomas O. Paine.

  The year 1971 holds more than a dozen further names. Among them are James B. Irwin, Eugene F. Kranz, Glynn S. Lunney, James A. McDivitt, Edgar D. Mitchell, Stuart A. Roosa, and Alfred M. Worden.

  In 1972 came Charles M. Duke, Thomas K. Mattingly, Hans M. Mark, and several others. The years 1973 through 1978 appear in the list with no names attached.

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• 7. Later Decades

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  William H. Bayley is the single name listed for 1980. A year later, Robert L. Crippen, Paul C. Donnelly, Howard S. Hardcastle, James B. Odom, Andrew J. Stofan, and John F. Yardley were honored.

  The early 1990s added John R. Casani in 1991, then Berrien Moore III, Mark Albrecht, and Story Musgrave in 1992. Jerome Apt appears in 1997.

  In 2001 the list includes Jack Brooks, Claude Nicollier, Courtney Stadd, James S. Voss, and Joseph Philip Loftus. Scott E. Parazynski follows in 2002.

  The 2004 group includes Kalpana Chawla and William McCool, together with Axel Roth, Brock "Randy" Stone, Lott W. Brantley Jr., G. Scott Hubbard, and Edward T. Lu. Eileen M. Collins is listed in 2006.

  In 2008, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele appear, along with Fuk Li, E. Myles Standish, and Richard Sunseri. Christopher Scolese and Stephanie D. Wilson are listed for 2009.

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• 8. The Newest Names

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  Roy W. Malone, Jr. is the name listed for 2020. The year 2021 brings the most recent entries in the source.

  Those entries are David A. Herda, Paul K. McConnaughey, H. Phil Stahl, and Bobby J. Watkins. The years between 2010 and 2019 show several blank entries, so the full roll for that stretch remains unclear from this list.

  The record ends with Watkins, a reminder that the medal is still being awarded.

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