Sugarcreek native Dr. Ronald Moomaw receives national NASA public service award

Sugarcreek native Dr. Ronald Moomaw was awarded a medal for exceptional performance and vital contributions to the NASA mission as an aerospace psychiatrist.

The award was presented at the NASA space agency awards on April 25. Bill Nelson, national NASA administrator, and Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, presented the award.

“We are honoring our fellow members of our NASA family that are being awarded our agency’s highest honors,” Nelson said in a press release.

Moomaw was the first physician in NASA history to win this award.

“It is a profound honor to be selected for this award," he said in a prepared statement. "I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work with NASA on the greatest adventure for mankind. Having come from the beautiful village of Sugarcreek, Ohio, where everyday living included a full-time blacksmith, the dream of space exploration was almost science fiction for me as a child.

"I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the NASA community of astronauts, engineers, the leadership, and our international working group that makes the fantasy of space flight a reality.”

Moomaw’s duties included psychiatric assessments and continuous psychological support of the astronauts, serving on four astronaut selection committees, working with the International Space Flight Behavioral Health group, developing fatigue management service for mission essential personnel, and serving as the only psychiatrist providing outpatient care for JSC. During the shuttle era, Moomaw was a contingency first responder for Shuttle Flights STS 130 -STS 135 and also for 2020 Space X DM-2, the initial commercial aerospace company to launch NASA astronauts into space.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Sugarcreek native Dr. Ronald Moomaw gets NASA Public Service Award