NASA Space Technology
Thru a protracted time of labor, three storytellers introduced out of this world recordsdata all of the plan in which down to Earth, offering a lens thru which young and aged could sight location exploration unfold. This week, NASA known the contributions of these Chroniclers at some level of a May additionally 15, 2024, ceremony at the agency’s Kennedy Philosophize Heart in Florida.
NASA Kennedy Philosophize Heart’s Accomplice Director of Administration Burt Summerfield changed into as soon as at the spaceport’s Press Space for the unveiling of three brass plates bearing the names of the 2024 honorees – Dan Billow, Michael R. Brown, and Margaret (Maggie) Persinger.
“The Chroniclers ceremony is believed to be one of Press Space’s most engrossing traditions,” Summerfield said. “We receive a probability to prolong our deepest thank you to participants of the media – and our NASA and industry communicators – who gallop above and beyond to present a proof for our fable to the realm,”
The inductees join the list of 82 other Chroniclers awardees whose names grasp proudly on the wall in the “bullpen” at Kennedy’s Press Space, where journalists, photographers and broadcasters luxuriate in gathered to duvet the placement industry since 1962.
The honorees were nominated by other participants of the knowledge media and selected by a panel of NASA officers and unique location reporters.
Dan Billow changed into as soon as born in 1960 in Orange County, California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1982 in radio and tv from California Philosophize College in Fullerton and carried out a certificates in meteorology from Mississippi Philosophize College in 2008.
Dan started his profession in 1982 as a recordsdata reporter at KRCR-TV in Redding, California. From 1985 to 1987, he worked as a recordsdata reporter with KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1987, Dan took a job with WESH-TV in Orlando, Florida, as a recordsdata reporter and meteorologist. While there, he coated all location shuttle missions from 1988-2011. He also coated NASA’s Earth and other planetary missions, in conjunction with Mars landings, spacecraft flights to Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the Sun, and Earth’s moon. Dan skilled weightlessness in a NASA KC-135 airplane in 1998, and he even skilled simulated location shuttle landings in a Shuttle Coaching Plane commanded by astronaut Chris Ferguson in 2011.
Dan earned the Society of Skilled Journalists Silver Medallion in 2003 and the duPont-Columbia Award in 2004 for defense of the Philosophize Shuttle Columbia tragedy, as effectively as three regional Emmy awards.
Dan retired in 2021, settling in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia along with his spouse of 41 years, Rebecca. They luxuriate in got three grownup young of us: Alex, Jordan, and Marie.
“Spaceflight is romance – there’s half of grandeur to it – and that’s the plan in which I coated it,” Billow said. “Spaceflight is magnificence, and I could continue to sight the following period of reporters covering it.”
Michael R. Brown served in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1972. Following his Navy carrier, Michael studied pictures at the Art Institute of Castle Lauderdale from 1974 to 1976 and launched his profession as a photojournalist origin with the Thomasville Times in Georgia in 1977.
In 1978, Michael authorized a job with Florida This day as a photojournalist. He had many well-known accomplishments at some level of his 34-year profession with Florida This day, in conjunction with covering all 135 Philosophize Shuttle launches as effectively because the launches of hundreds of expendable rockets. Notably, he changed into as soon as known as a finalist for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his photo protection of the Philosophize Shuttle Challenger tragedy. Michael now lives and works in Florida as a freelance photographer.
“We had just a few fun setting up some distance away cameras at some level of shuttle days to receive fair the correct shots,” Brown said. “If we had an conception for a photo, the of us here bent over backwards to be definite shall we receive what we wanted. But working with the of us here changed into as soon as what I in level of truth loved most.”
Margaret (Maggie) Persinger started her profession at NASA’s Kennedy Philosophize Heart in Florida as an archivist assistant in 1975. Due to her in-depth compare of the placement program at Kennedy, she changed into as soon as hired by Technicolor to work as a film file at the Movement Image Lab at Patrick Air Force Noxious in Florida from 1978 to 1986. Maggie then moved to the Checklist Lab at NASA’s Kennedy Philosophize Heart in Florida where she worked until 1992, ending her time as lead of the Film File Library.
In 1992, Margaret transferred to Kennedy’s Press Space, offering silent imagery to newspapers, wires, and magazines through dark and white as effectively as color photos, slides, and transparencies. With the upward thrust of the digital period, imagery transitioned to incorporate photo CDs and indirectly to digital shots on the net. These shifts in skills required finding out novel tactics, procedures, computers, and applications. Along with her recordsdata and trip, Maggie grew to vary into the Checklist Editor at Kennedy.
In 1995, Maggie’s tasks grew to incorporate video, slide inform film, and audio tape releases to the media. At the starting up this entailed compare into the material on VHS, beta tapes, and audio tapes extinct by TV, slide inform film productions, and radio. It wasn’t long earlier than skills improve modified the nature of her job all as soon as more with the introduction of excessive-definition ability and tapes, which added to the already wide library. Laborious copy tapes in the end gave solution to digital codecs, requiring Maggie to edit video clips that would be impulsively launched to the media through computer, thumb drives, or monumental skill decks enabling a tall quantity of photos. With out a requirement to mail tapes, movies shot at Kennedy to be edited and viewed quick around the realm.
Maggie’s profession saw many advances in film and skills, allowing her the uncommon opportunity to work with many forms of media – newspapers, wires, magazines, TV, documentaries, slide inform film productions, and social media.
“I changed into as soon as so happy with what NASA is doing and that I could aid receive be conscious out to the final public,” Persinger said. “Aid after we worked with print photos and tape, I take into accout assembly reporters at all hours and at areas love the bowling alley to form definite they had what they wanted for their reviews.”
The Chroniclers ceremony is most continuously held in early May additionally to honor the key U.S. human spaceflight, Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, on May additionally 5, 1961. The 15-minute, 28-2d flight despatched astronaut Alan Shepard into orbit round Earth, ending with a a hit splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
For more listings of all The Chroniclers, consult with: The Chroniclers – NASA
