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Celebrating Native American Heritage Month with Jerry C. Elliott

Jerry Elliott, a former NASA physicist and one of the first Native Americans hired at NASA's Johnson Space Center, speaks during Native American Heritage Month event at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Jerry Elliott, a former NASA physicist and one of the first Native Americans hired at NASA's Johnson Space Center, speaks during Native American Heritage Month event in 2017 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Jerry C. Elliott, a former NASA physicist and one of the first Native Americans hired at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, speaks during Native American Heritage Month event in 2017 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

He joined NASA in April 1966, as a Flight Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Mission Control Center and held technical and managerial positions with highly successful accomplishments in many fields including spacecraft systems, mission operations, astronaut crew equipment, scientific experiments and technical management.

Elliott received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor, for duties as Retrofire Officer at NASA Mission Control Center during the aborted Apollo 13 space mission with the safe return of the flight crew.

View the Native American Heritage Month Gallery.

Image Credit: Emmett Given