NASA Presents Safety Award To Three Kennedy Employees

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

Feb. 23, 2012

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: 15-12

NASA PRESENTS SAFETY AWARD TO THREE KENNEDY EMPLOYEES

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has presented its Quality and Safety 
Achievement Recognition, or QASAR, award for 2011 to three Kennedy 
Space Center, Fla., employees; Humberto "Bert" T. Garrido, Joseph B. 
Hamilton and Francis "Frank" Merceret.

NASA's 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.

"The first of NASA's four core values is safety, and without it, none 
of the agency's missions of exploration and scientific discovery can 
successfully happen. Bert, Joe and Frank exemplify that core value," 
said Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana.

Garrido was responsible for safety, quality, reliability, software 
assurance, mission success and independent assessments of space 
shuttle, International Space Station and expendable launch vehicle 
activities at Kennedy, as well as institutional activities and 
developmental efforts at the space center.

Garrido led development of the space shuttle independent assessment 
program and Kennedy's implementation of the Columbia Accident 
Investigation Board's safety and mission assurance recommendations. 
He established Kennedy's current safety and mission assurance 
readiness review process and led the space center to its first 
Voluntary Protection Program certification from the U.S. Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration. Through his work to enhance 
Kennedy's safety culture, Garrido influenced development of 
agency-level standard safety and quality metrics for human and 
robotic space flight. He developed and implemented agency policies 
and programs to safeguard payloads and the public.

Hamilton is a NASA contractor quality engineer employed by Millennium 
Engineering and Integration Company of Arlington, Va., received the 
award for recommending ways to strengthen occupational safety 
requirements for ground handling of graphite epoxy containers called 
composite overwrap pressure vessels. The vessels, which are used in 
space to store life support commodities such as oxygen and nitrogen, 
are regarded as hazardous equipment.

Hamilton analyzed the danger of keeping the vessels pressurized for 
long periods before launching them into space. As a result, NASA 
initiated a study to gather statistical data on the vessels' behavior 
and asked Hamilton to lend his expertise to design of a recharge 
system that will be flown on cargo ships sent to resupply the 
International Space Station in the future.

Merceret, a member of the Applied Meteorology Unit at Kennedy, 
received the award for improving the criteria agency officials use 
during a countdown to determine whether the potential for a lightning 
strike presents a safety hazard for launching a rocket.

Merceret was the driving force behind an initiative to document the 
history of the so-called lightning launch commit criteria for U.S. 
government ranges and two major research programs, which resulted in 
major revisions that have helped prevent unnecessary launch delays 
and cancellations.

Garrido, Hamilton and Merceret were recognized along with two other 
recipients on Feb. 23 at the agency's ninth annual Project Management 
Challenge in Orlando, Fla.

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

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

	
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