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A pin that left Earth
The sterling silver lapel pin — hand-drawn by Charles Schulz himself — is flown aboard a NASA mission before it is ever presented. Every recipient holds a piece of hardware that has been to space.
Silver Snoopy Award
NASA Safety & ExcellenceThe honor the astronauts give
The honor the astronauts give
to the people who save their lives.
Since 1968, NASA has recognized contractors and civil servants who go beyond what the job requires to keep crews alive and missions on track. Only 1 percent of eligible workers receive it in any given year. The pin they hold has actually been to space.
1968Year established
15,000+Recipients since founding
1%Max of eligible workforce per year
Flown in spaceEvery sterling silver pin
The Award
The highest honor the astronaut corps can give to the people behind the mission.
Most NASA awards come from management. The Silver Snoopy is different. It comes from the astronauts themselves. Active and former crew members personally nominate and present the award to contractors and civil servants who have made an extraordinary contribution to human spaceflight safety or mission success.
That distinction matters. These are the people whose lives are directly at stake. When they say someone went above and beyond to protect a mission, it means something different than when an executive says it.
The award is not given for years of service, for retirement, or for seniority. It recognizes specific contributions. Recent work within the last three years is required. It cannot be awarded posthumously. It is given once per lifetime.
What Recipients Receive
A pin that has been to space. Presented in person by an astronaut.
The physical award is unusual. Every piece is deliberately designed to connect the recipient to the missions they made possible.
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Presented by an astronaut
An active or former NASA astronaut personally presents the award. Not a manager, not a director. The people whose lives depend on your work are the ones who say thank you.
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Signed mission letter
A commendation letter from the presenting astronaut identifies the exact mission on which the pin flew, tying the physical object to a moment in space history.
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Framed certificate
A signed, framed certificate and an authenticity letter documenting the pin's complete flight history. A permanent record of what was done and why it mattered.
Apollo 10 · May 1969
The crew named their lunar module Snoopy.
Apollo 10 astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan named their lunar module Snoopy and their command module Charlie Brown in tribute to NASA's safety mascot. The LM descended to within 14.4 kilometers of the Moon's surface, closer than any human had ever been. One year after the award was created, Snoopy flew to the Moon.
The Seven Criteria
Recipients must meet at least two. Most work goes unrecognized. This catches the exceptional.
Eligibility is strict. The award applies to full-time NASA employees and contractors. Senior managers at the GS-14/15 supervisory level or equivalent are typically excluded. No more than 1 percent of the eligible workforce may receive it in any single year.
Beyond the job description
Significant contributions that go above and beyond normal requirements in support of human spaceflight programs.
Single defining achievement
A single, standout achievement that directly advances the goals of a human spaceflight program.
Robotic mission support
Exemplary support of robotic precursor or companion missions that enable or enhance human spaceflight.
Major cost savings
Documented cost savings or cost avoidance that materially benefit a spaceflight program.
Quality, reliability, and safety
Program modifications that measurably increase quality, reliability, safety, efficiency, or mission performance.
Operational improvements
Operational innovations that enhance team efficiency or mission performance in meaningful ways.
Process breakthroughs
Significant process improvements with lasting, positive impact on spaceflight programs.
Who Receives It
The people you never see on launch day.
The Silver Snoopy is for the people behind the mission. Not the astronauts. Not the directors. The engineers, technicians, programmers, quality reviewers, and mission controllers whose names never appear in the news.
Hardware EngineersThe technicians who build, wire, and certify the systems that keep crews breathing, flying, and coming home. A single missed torque spec can end a mission. They do not miss.
Software DevelopersThe programmers who wrote the guidance code for Apollo did it on punch cards. Today their successors work on avionics, life support algorithms, and crew interface systems where every line matters.
Mission ControllersFlight controllers, flight surgeons, and support teams who watch the telemetry feeds during every second of a mission and have the authority to abort if something looks wrong.
Quality AssuranceQA inspectors and safety reviewers who read through test reports and launch readiness data looking for the anomaly everyone else missed. They are often the last line of defense.
History
From Apollo 1 to the present day.
The Silver Snoopy was born out of tragedy and built into one of the most enduring safety cultures in any engineering organization in history.
1961–1966
Mercury and Gemini prove the concept
NASA's early human spaceflight programs demonstrated that thousands of contractors and civil servants, not just astronauts, determined whether missions succeeded or failed.
1967
Apollo 1 changes everything
The loss of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in a launch pad fire on January 27, 1967 made safety culture a defining mission. NASA needed a way to keep that urgency alive across hundreds of thousands of workers.
1968
The award is created
Al Chop, Director of Public Affairs at the Manned Spacecraft Center, proposed featuring Snoopy as NASA's safety mascot. Charles Schulz personally drew the pin design and the promotional artwork, donating his work at no cost. The award launched the same year.
1969
Apollo 10 names its lunar module Snoopy
In tribute to NASA's beloved safety mascot, the Apollo 10 crew named their lunar module Snoopy and their command module Charlie Brown. The LM descended to within 14.4 km of the lunar surface in the final dress rehearsal before Apollo 11.
1969–present
The culture takes hold
Through Apollo, Skylab, the Space Shuttle era, ISS construction, and beyond, the Silver Snoopy has been presented to workers across every NASA center and hundreds of contractor companies. Since 1968, more than 15,000 people have received it.
Charles Schulz
The Peanuts creator drew the pin himself. And donated every bit of it.
When Al Chop at the Manned Spacecraft Center approached Charles Schulz about using Snoopy as NASA's safety mascot, Schulz said yes immediately. Then he went further. He personally drew the sterling silver pin design. He created the promotional artwork. He worked with United Feature Syndicate to grant NASA full use of the character.
All of it was donated. No licensing fee. No royalties. Schulz believed in what NASA was doing and believed the people who worked there deserved something real.
The result is a pin that carries the signature of one of the most beloved cartoonists in American history and has flown in space. That combination has never existed in any other award, from any other organization.
The Mission Context
Every launch is the product of hundreds of thousands of decisions.
The Silver Snoopy exists because NASA understands what the numbers really mean. The gap between a successful mission and a catastrophic one is often a single decision made by a single person working a late shift in a facility most people have never heard of.
Every launch rests on years of decisions made by people who will never be on board.
Earth from orbit. Getting here is the job.
Hardware that flies is hardware someone built, checked, and signed off on.
Avionics, life support, guidance. Millions of components, zero tolerance for failure.
The destination. The reason every safety review, every quality check, every late night matters.
Why It Matters
15,000 people over 56 years. Each one of them kept someone alive.
The Silver Snoopy does not exist to make employees feel good about their jobs. It exists because NASA learned, in the worst possible way, that safety culture cannot be assumed. It has to be built, recognized, and reinforced over decades.
The 1 percent rule is intentional. If the award went to 10 percent of the workforce, it would become a participation trophy. At 1 percent, it remains a signal: this person did something genuinely extraordinary. The workforce notices who gets it. And they understand what it takes.
The pin being flown in space before it is presented is not a marketing detail. It is a statement. The person receiving it is being told: you contributed to this mission. You were part of it, even if you never left the ground.