The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to those who display distinguished service, ability, or courage, and have personally made a contribution representing substantial progress to the NASA mission. The contribution must be so extraordinary that other forms of recognition would be inadequate.
Typical presentations of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal included awards to senior NASA administrators, mission control leaders, and astronauts who have completed several successful space flights. Due to the prestige of the award, the decoration is authorized for wear on active uniforms of the United States military. Another such authorized decoration is the NASA Space Flight Medal.
The medal was original awarded by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and was inherited by NASA. The first NASA version (type I), featuring the NASA seal, was issued from 1959 until 1964, when it was replaced by the current type II medal (shown).
James Webb's award, 1 November 1968
Recipients
1959
John W. Crowley, Jr., NASA Director of Aeronautical and Space Research[1]
^Morris, John S. (1961) "President Will Give Medal to Astronaut", The New York Times, May 7, 1961.
^"Distinguished Service Medal, NASA, 1961, Alan Shepard". Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^ a b"Virgil I. Grissom (Lieutenant Colonel, USAF)" (PDF). NASA. December 1997. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"President John F. Kennedy Pins NASA Distinguished Service Medal on John Glenn". NASA. August 7, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"Remarks at the presentation of NASA's Distinguished Service Medal to Dr. Robert R. Gilruth and Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., 23 February 1962". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. August 7, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"Scott Carpenter". NASA. October 2013. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"mach-buster.co.uk".
^"President Kennedy Awards the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to Major Gordon Cooper, 21 May 1963". JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.
^ a bSchudel, Matt (16 November 2005). "Willis Shapley Dies". Washington Post. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
^"appa". history.nasa.gov. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
^"Astronaut Bio: Robert L. Crippen (07\2001)". 11 February 2015.
^"NASA Medals Historical Recipients" (PDF).
^"Biographical Sketch" (PDF). NASA. December 1986. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"Robert O. Aller, 76". Washington Post. June 6, 2006. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^"Astronaut Bio: Franklin Story Musgrave (M.D.)". 11 February 2015.
^"NASA medal to Aldridge".
^"Chief Of Staff Courtney Stadd Announces Plans To Leave Agency". NASA Newsroom. May 27, 2003. Retrieved 2 January 2017.