Date: September 23rd 2006

Sept 22, 2006

Doc Mirelson/Dave Steitz Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4495/1600

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-149

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

For McDivitt's astronaut biographical information, visit:

http://www jsc nasa gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcdivitt-ja html

For College of Engineering information and event media access, contact Lisa Hopkins at: 734-647-7046; e-mail: lshopkin@umich edu

Taped coverage of the event will air during the NASA TV Video File For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

For information about NASA and agency programs visit:

http://www nasa gov/home

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