science

NASA Distinguished Service Medal

NASA Distinguished Service Medal is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NASA Distinguished Service Medal rather than just read about it. In short: The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both military astronauts and civilian employees.

Key takeaways

NASA Distinguished Service Medal belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NASA Distinguished Service Medal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NASA Distinguished Service Medal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both military astronauts and civilian employees. 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. Upon the recommendation of NASA, the president may award an even higher honor to astronauts, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. 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).

Recipients

1959 John W. Crowley, NASA Director of Aeronautical and Space Research

1961 Alan Shepard (May 8) Virgil I. Grissom (July 22)

1962 John Glenn Robert Gilruth Scott Carpenter Wally Schirra (October 15) Forrest S. Petersen, X-15 pilot Robert White, X-15 pilot Joseph A. Walker, X-15 pilot Walter C. Williams

1963 Gordon Cooper

1965 Wally Schirra (December 30) (second award)

1966 Hugh L. Dryden T. Keith Glennan Charles W. Mathews George E. Mueller Bernard A. Schriever

1967 Raymond L. Bisplinghoff Edgar M. Cortright Homer E. Newell Walter D. Sohier Floyd L. Thompson

1968 James Webb Alexander Flax

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1980 William H. Bayley

1981 Robert L. Crippen Paul C. Donnelly Howard S. Hardcastle James B. Odom Andrew J. Stofan John F. Yardley Walter C. Williams (second award) David Williamson Jr. (second award)

1982

1983

1984 Robert O. Aller

1985

1986

1987 Leslie H. Meredith

1988 Willis H. Shapley (second award)

1989

1990

1991 John R. Casani

1992 Berrien Moore III Mark Albrecht Story Musgrave

1993

1994 Joseph H. Rothenberg

1995 Bill G. Aldridge

1996 Gerald M. Smith William J. O'Neil

1997 Jerome Apt

2000 Joseph H. Rothenberg

2001 Jack Brooks Claude Nicollier Courtney Stadd James S. Voss Joseph Philip Loftus

2002 Scott E. Parazynski

2004 Kalpana Chawla William McCool Axel Roth Brock "Randy" Stone Lott W. Brantley Jr. G. Scott Hubbard Edward T. Lu

2005 Alphonso V. Diaz Firouz Naderi

2006 Eileen M. Collins

2007 Douglas Hendriksen

2008 Walter Cunningham Donn Eisele Fuk Li Walter Schirra (Third Award) E. Myles Standish Richard Sunseri

2009 Christopher Scolese Stephanie D. Wilson

2010

2011

2012

2013

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Roy W. Malone, Jr.

2021

David A. Herda Paul K. McConnaughey H. Phil Stahl Bobby J. Watkins

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NASA Distinguished Service Medal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NASA Distinguished Service Medal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NASA Distinguished Service Medal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NASA Distinguished Service Medal

In research: NASA Distinguished Service Medal appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NASA Distinguished Service Medal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NASA Distinguished Service Medal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Awards and decorations of NASA, Awards established in 1959, Distinguished service awards, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NASA Distinguished Service Medal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NASA Distinguished Service Medal means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NASA Distinguished Service Medal out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NASA Distinguished Service Medal in simple terms?

Why does NASA Distinguished Service Medal matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NASA Distinguished Service Medal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NASA Distinguished Service Medal.