Three Journalists to Share Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 22, 2011) — Three journalists who have shaped the way the nation views and understands space have been selected to receive the Space Foundation’s 2011 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, to be presented at the 27th National Space Symposium, at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 11.

The recipients are Jay Barbree, NBC News; Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press; William Harwood, CBS News.

The Space Foundation annually presents the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award to an individual, team or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of, and support for, space programs. The award’s namesake was an Academy Award winning writer and producer, space advocate and early member of the board of directors of the Space Foundation.

The 2011 recipients have been at the forefront of space news coverage — via television, print publications and online — and through their commentary have helped the nation understand complex scientific information, deal with national tragedy and experience the triumph of discovery and accomplishment. They are being honored for their extraordinary coverage of the Space Shuttle program.

About Barbree
NBC News Correspondent Jay Barbree is the only journalist to have covered every manned U.S. space launch: a total of 164 Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions. He joined NBC in 1958 as a part-time space program reporter based at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., eventually moving to full-time and spending his entire career in Florida covering space. In the early 1980s, he was one of 40 finalists selected to the NASA Journalist in Space program, which was discontinued after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. He was part of the NBC News Space Unit that won an Emmy award for NBC’s coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, was the first journalist to report on the cause of the Challenger accident and was among the first to break the news of NASA concerns about foam striking the Space Shuttle Columbia’s left wing during ascent — the incident that led to the Columbia accident in 2003. Barbree is the author or co-author of eight books, including two memoirs, collaborations with astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton and other non-fiction works about space.

About Dunn
Aerospace writer Marcia Dunn has covered the space beat for The Associated Press since 1990. By the time the Space Shuttle program ends this year, she will have witnessed and written about 99 Shuttle flights. She also has reported on two launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In 1995, she was among the first group of U.S. journalists allowed into the Cosmodrome for a manned Russian Soyuz launch. In 2003, she received the Associated Press Managing Editors’ top deadline reporting prize for her coverage of the Columbia accident. Dunn is featured in one of the Sally Ride Science series of career books for youngsters, “Cool Careers in Space Sciences.” She is based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

About Harwood
CBS News Space Consultant William Harwood has covered America’s space program full time for more than 27 years, focusing on Space Shuttle operations, planetary exploration and astronomy. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood provides up-to-the-minute space reports for CBS News and regularly contributes to CNET, Spaceflight Now and The New York Times. A prolific blogger, Harwood writes, edits and maintains CBS News:space, which provides detailed information about space exploration, statistics, demographic data and coverage of planetary exploration across the solar system, with a goal of providing a high level of detail and objectivity.

About the Morrow Award
Designed to recognize those who have made significant contributions to public understanding of, and support for, space programs, the Morrow Award has a long list of distinguished recipients: astronaut Eileen Collins, actor/director Tom Hanks, the X PRIZE Foundation, space artist Robert T. McCall, the late Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the crew of Space Shuttle Mission STS-95, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and, in 2010, actor/director Leonard Nimoy.

About the 27th National Space Symposium
The annual Space Foundation National Space Symposium brings together all sectors of space to highlight accomplishments and address opportunities and issues facing the global space community today. The Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award is one of several honors to be presented during the Symposium. Other Space Foundation awards include:

• General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award
• Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award
• Space Achievement Award
• Space Technology Hall of Fame

Register for the 27th National Space Symposium
Take advantage of Early Bird rates by registering for the 27th National Space Symposium before March 18 at www.nationalspacesymposium.org/register.

27th National Space Symposium Co-Sponsors
Confirmed co-sponsors of the 27th National Space Symposium include a.i. solutions; Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI); ARES Corporation; ATK; Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.; The Boeing Company; Booz Allen Hamilton; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Euroconsult; Fisher Space Pen Co.; GMV; General Dynamics; IBM; ILA Berlin Air Show; Integral Systems; Intelsat General Corporation; International Academy of Astronautics (IAA); International Space University (ISU); Lockheed Martin; Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB); Moog; Northrop Grumman; Paradigm; Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne; QinetiQ; Raytheon; SAIC; SES World Skies; Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) ; SpaceSystems/Loral; SpaceX; Stellar Solutions; Swedish Space Corporation (SSC); United Launch Alliance; and United Space Alliance. Space News International and Aviation Week are official media partners. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available; interested companies should contact [email protected].

About the Space Foundation
The Space Foundation is a global, nonprofit organization and the foremost advocate for all sectors of the space industry – civil, commercial, military and intelligence. Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is a leader in space awareness activities, educational programs that bring space into the classroom, and major industry events, including the National Space Symposium, all in support of its mission “to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity.” An expert in all aspects of the global space industry, the Space Foundation publishes The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity and provides three indices that track daily performance of the space industry. Through its Space Certification and Space Technology Hall of Fame® programs, the Space Foundation recognizes space-based technologies and innovations that have been adapted to improve life on Earth. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, the Space Foundation conducts research and analysis and government affairs activities from its Washington, D.C., office and has field representatives in Houston, Texas, and Cape Canaveral, Fla. For more information, visit www.SpaceFoundation.org. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and read about the latest space news and Space Foundation activities in Space Watch.

Pictured: Bill Harwood, of CBS News, is one of three space journalist receiving the 2011 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award at the 27th National Space Symposium.

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