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Space Foundation Honors NASA Kepler Mission with John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  (March 7, 2012) - The NASA Kepler Mission has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Space Foundation’s John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration. The award will be presented April 16 during the opening ceremony of the 28th National Space Symposium at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The NASA Kepler Mission is being recognized for the discovery of 61 confirmed extrasolar planets and over 2,300 planet candidates in the first 16 months of observations from May 2009 to September 2010. 

The John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration honors astronaut Jack Swigert, a Colorado native who served with retired U.S. Navy Captain James A. Lovell, Jr., and Fred Haise on the legendary Apollo 13 lunar mission, which was aborted after the perilous rupture of an oxygen tank en route to the moon. People around the world watched as NASA overcame tremendous odds to return the crew safely to Earth. Before joining the Apollo program, Swigert was a combat pilot for the U.S. Air Force in Japan and Korea and an engineering test pilot for North American Aviation, Inc. and Pratt and Whitney. In 1982, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but died of cancer before taking the oath of office.

The Space Foundation, founded in 1983 in part to honor Swigert's memory, created the Swigert Award in 2004 in tribute to his lasting legacy of space exploration. Previous recipients include NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), The California Institute of Technology, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's Mars Exploration Team from JPL, President George W. Bush and the LCROSS mission.

About the 28th National Space Symposium
Presented by the Space Foundation, the 28th National Space Symposium offers presentations and panels covering all aspects of space. The Symposium’s top allure to participants – of which there were more than 9,000 in 2011 – is as a venue for networking and conducting meaningful business.

Contacts:  
media@spacefoundation.org
719.576.8000           
Janet P. Stevens, APR   
Vice President – Marketing and Communications    
Carol S. Hively    
Manager – Communications   

Michele Johnson
NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-6982
michele.johnson@nasa.gov

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