Description
First Presentation of The Congressional Space Medal of Honor by the President of the United States, with official photographs of President Jimmy Carter and passes to the event. Presentation occurred on October 1, 1978.
This lot includes 24 official NASA photographs from the Congressional Space Medal of Honor event, two vehicle parking passes and a support staff access pass. All from the collection of J.P. Warndorf of NASA. Photographs depict President Carter, Mrs. Carter and Amy Carter touring NASA facilities, viewing a model of the Space Shuttle and bestowing the Space Medal of Honor on Neil Armstrong.
President Carter visited the Kennedy Space Center on October 1st, 1978, the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of NASA. The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized in 1969, with President Carter being the first to bestow the honor. The recipients at this first presentation ceremony included: Neil A. Armstrong, Frank Borman, Charles Conrad, Jr., John H. Glenn, Virgil I. Grissom (deceased) and Alan B. Shepard. Since this first ceremony, a total of 28 astronauts have received the Space Medal of Honor, including posthumous honors for the crew of Apollo 1, the Space Shuttle Challenger and the Space Shuttle Columbia.
