Navy Recognizes Columbia Astronaut

The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) is dedicating and naming the organization's redesigned auditorium to honor NASA astronaut Laurel Clark, a crewmember on the Space Shuttle Columbia. Clark, a captain and flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy medical corps, perished along with six other astronaut crew members on Feb. 1, when the Columbia broke up over Texas.

The dedication ceremony is Friday, July 11 at 2:30 p.m. The ceremony will be in the Building 10 amphitheater, NNMC, 8901 Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, Md.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, Associate Administrator for Space Flight Bill Readdy, and several astronauts will represent the agency at the dedication ceremony.

By dedicating the auditorium in Clark's name, the NNMC salutes and celebrates her memory, and the courage, commitment, and dedication she demonstrated to Navy medicine and NASA's human space flight program through the life she led. Clark was an accomplished and experienced Naval Flight Surgeon, and she completed NNMC's Graduate Medical Education program.

Media desiring access to the ceremony should contact NNMC public affairs prior to 10 a.m. EDT, July 11 at: 301/295-5727.