Katie Kirk of Palmdale, a nurse practioner at NASA Dryden’s Health Unit, proudly displays her NASA Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award that she recently received. Kirk and members of her family joined other honorees at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-135, the final space shuttle mission, in early July. (NASA / Tom Tschida) EDWARDS, Calif. – Kathleen “Katie” Kirk, a nurse practitioner in the Health Unit at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, was recently honored with a NASA Space Flight Awareness award for her support of the agency’s human spaceflight programs.
Kirk, a resident of Palmdale and an employee of STG International at Dryden, was among 143 civil servants and contractors who work at NASA facilities across the country who received the award.
According to the nomination submitted by flight surgeon Dr. Gregg Bendrick, chief of the NASA Dryden Health Unit, Kirk was honored “for her attention to detail, devotion to duty and tireless efforts in support of the human space flight program.
“Her actions above and beyond the expectations and requirements of her job duties have contributed greatly to the post-flight medical assessment and treatment of crewmembers on five different space shuttle missions,” Bendrick wrote. “Her willingness to do what it takes in order to accomplish the mission has contributed directly to the turn-around and ferry operations of the shuttle orbiters, and has likewise ensured a maximum degree of medical readiness” in the event of an emergency.
Kirk and members of her family, along with many of the other recipients of the award, traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tour the center and participate in activities associated with launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, the final mission of the shuttle program.
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Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
(661) 276-2665
alan.brown@nasa.gov