The Aerospace Corporation’s Bruce Wendler
Honored With NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal

HOUSTON, Tex. (6/20/06) — Bruce H. Wendler, a senior project engineer at The Aerospace Corporation, has been awarded NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal. The medal is one of the highest-level awards available to non-NASA employees and is granted for exceptional contributions to the NASA mission.

Wendler was cited for his leadership and technical contributions in support of the return to flight of the Space Shuttle Program after the Columbia tragedy.

“Bruce Wendler has provided truly exceptional public service as part of the return to flight…effort of the Space Shuttle Program. Mr. Wendler was a true leader in the program in re-establishing a systems engineering and integration capability and, in particular, defining the debris risk and assessing it for flight,” the citation stated.

The return-to-flight effort resulted in the successful flight of NASA mission STS-114, the flight of the Shuttle Discovery launched on July 26, 2005.

Wendler received the award June 20 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The Aerospace Corporation, based in El Segundo, Calif., is an independent, nonprofit company that provides objective technical analyses and assessments for national security space programs and selected civil and commercial space programs in the national interest.

Media Inquiries: Contact Dave Jonta, 310-336-5041, david.l.jonta@aero.org