NASA Presents Safety Award To Robert D. Straney

[KSC News Center <ksc@mediaservices.nasa.gov>]

Feb. 25, 2009

Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 
321-867-2468
allard.beutel@nasa.gov 

Beth Dickey 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-2087
beth.dickey-1@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 10-09

NASA PRESENTS SAFETY AWARD TO ROBERT D. STRANEY

WASHINGTON -- NASA has presented its Quality and Safety Achievement 
Recognition, or QASAR, award for 2008 to Robert D. Straney of Merritt 
Island, Fla.

Straney, an employee of United Space Alliance at NASA's Kennedy Space 
Center, received the award for his attention to detail in an 
inspection of the space shuttle Discovery. He was recognized along 
with three other recipients Feb. 25 at the agency's sixth annual 
Project Management Challenge in Daytona Beach, Fla.

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

"I'm proud to be part of the shuttle program and it's an honor to be 
recognized by NASA," said Straney.

While conducting a post-flight inspection of shuttle Discovery's 
thermal protection system, Straney found that one of the two bolts 
that connect a carrier panel to the orbiter's wing had a washer 
installed where it should not have been.

The hidden configuration of the washer posed a safety hazard, and it 
took a keen eye for the graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 
University in Daytona Beach to see it. Straney's discovery prompted 
changes in inspection procedures for the same flight hardware in the 
future.

For more information about the Quality and Safety Achievement 
Recognition award program, visit:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/qasar/ 

	
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