http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2040

Award to Recognize Phoenix Mars Lander Team
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 19, 2009

The team that developed and operated NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander
mission
will receive the 2009 John L. "Jack" Swigert Award for Space
Exploration
from the Space Foundation.

During five months of operations at a Martian arctic site after
landing
on May 25, 2008, the Phoenix spacecraft confirmed the presence of
frozen
water just below the surface, identified potential nutrients and other
substances in the soil, and observed snow in the atmosphere.

The Space Foundation, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., announced Feb.
19 [link from "announced Feb. 19" to
http://www.spacefoundation.org/news/story.php?id=658] that it will
present the award to the Phoenix team on March 30, during the
foundation's 25th National Space Symposium, in Colorado Springs.

The annual award honors the memory and legacy of Apollo 13 astronaut
Jack Swigert.

The Phoenix team is a collaboration of several organizations. Phoenix
Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, is supported by an international team of science
co-investigators. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
provided project management, mission management, and technical
collaboration with the science and spacecraft teams. Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver, provided spacecraft development, assembly and
testing, and flight-system mission operations support. International
contributions have been provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the
University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen
and
Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany, and the Finnish
Meteorological Institute.

For more information, visit http://uanews.org/node/24158 .

Media contact: Guy Webster/JPL
818-354-6278
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