NASA Presents Safety Award to Nigel Packham

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has presented its Quality and Safety Achievement Recognition, or QASAR, award for 2009 to Nigel Packham of Seabrook, Texas.

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Packham received the award for his contributions to the success of NASA's human space flight programs while serving dual roles as an associate director of NASA's Johnson Space Center and deputy manager of the Flight Safety Office in Johnson's Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate.

Packham led the team that developed the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report in 2008 and disseminated lessons learned from the investigation in presentations to more than 4,000 individuals from NASA, other government agencies, and industries involved in air and space programs. Packham also worked with developers of the Orion spacecraft to ensure that lessons from the shuttle accident were incorporated into Orion's design. Also among Packham's accomplishments is a risk analysis that enabled NASA to double the International Space Station's permanent crew size to six.

"I feel humbled and honored to have received this award," Packham said. "I accepted it on behalf of the tireless men and women who worked on the crew survival report which we believe is required reading for any future spacecraft designer."

Packham was recognized along with two other recipients Feb. 10 at the agency's seventh annual Project Management Challenge in Galveston, Texas.

The QASAR award recognizes individual government and contractor employees who have demonstrated exemplary performance in contributing to the quality or safety of products, services, processes, or management programs and activities.

SOURCE NASA