NASA honors astronaut Fred Haise Jr.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it will honor astronaut Fred Haise Jr. by presenting him with the space agency's Ambassador of Exploration Award.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will present the award that consists of a moon rock encased in a Lucite display case Dec. 2 at the Gorenflo Elementary School in Biloxi, Miss. Haise, in turn, will present the moon rock to Paul Tisdale, superintendent of the Biloxi Public School System, and Tina Thompson, the principal of the school that Haise once attended.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of astronauts in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The moon rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972.

Haise was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 13 in 1970 and has logged 142 hours and 54 minutes in space. A Biloxi native, Haise was also the backup lunar module pilot for the Apollo 8 and 11 missions, and backup spacecraft commander for the Apollo 16 mission.

He also commanded one of two crews that conducted test flights during the development of the space shuttle.