Valley native recognized by NASA

McALLEN — A Rio Grande Valley native was recognized for helping make astronauts safer.

Fernando Medina, 36, of McAllen, was recognized with the Silver Snoopy award from NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Karen Nyberg last month. He is the son of Marcelino and Concepción Medina of McAllen.

Medina, a McAllen Memorial High School alumnus, graduated in 1997 from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in mechanical engineering.

"Basically I perform testing flight and non-flight hardware in support of the international space station, shuttle program and the new constellation program," Medina said.

The award is given personally by NASA astronauts because it represents the astronauts’ own recognition of excellence.

The award consists of a sterling silver "Silver Snoopy" lapel pin flown during a NASA mission, a commendation letter which states the mission the Silver Snoopy pin was flown on and a signed, framed Silver Snoopy certificate. Snoopy decals and posters are also given to the recipient. The pin given to Medina was flown on June 8, 2007, on the STS-117 Shuttle Atlantis.

Back in 2007, Medina and his colleagues worked overnight to complete a crucial test, which enabled a successful evaluation of the Solar Array repair procedure to support the STS-118 on-orbit. This effort required the design and building of unusually large fixtures to support the Solar Array and to mount the actuators. There was a tremendous amount of coordination and communication as well as engineering contributions to the Structures Test Laboratory.

Medina’s fixture design ability as well as his ability to respond to changes on short notice was most helpful, said Dr. Ernie Wu, ERC’s CEO on a written statement announcing Medina’s award.

Medina is the only Valley native to have received the award. "I am not even sure if (astronaut Michael) Fossum got one too," Medina said.

The 36-year-old received the award Oct. 22 at the Lyndon B. Johnson auditorium in Houston.

Medina said he was an average student while at Memorial, but he had interest in architecture and engineering.

"I didn’t see the light until I got to college," Medina said.

With only an internship in San Antonio’s South West Research Institute on his resume, Medina landed a job after graduating with ERC, an on-site contractor for NASA. In 1997 the young engineer became a structural test engineer specialist in the Structural Engineering Division Department at NASA.

Medina worked up the ladder and started getting more and more responsibilities.

The idea for the Silver Snoopy award came from Al Chop, who was director of the public affairs office for the Manned Spacecraft Center (now called the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center). He wanted to create an award featuring Snoopy as an astronaut to be given by astronauts in recognition of outstanding contributions by employees.

Charles M. Schulz, who was an avid supporter of the U.S. space program, welcomed the idea of using Snoopy for the award, he even drew the image the award pin depicts.

As of June 2009, 12,083 people have received Silver Snoopy awards since the program began in 1968.

An individual can only receive one Silver Snoopy Award in his or her lifeti

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