NASA Johnson Leaders Honored by National Space Club & Foundation
Summary: On April 23, 2026, two distinguished leaders from NASA's Johnson Space Center — Orion Program Manager Howard Hu and International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel — were honored at the 69th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner at the Washington Hilton, receiving the National Space Club & Foundation's prestigious 2026 awards for their exceptional contributions to human space exploration.
Credit: NASA
Howard Hu received the Norman L. Baker Astronautics Engineer Award for sustained technical contributions to multiple human spaceflight efforts. Hu has led the design, development, production, and operations of NASA's Orion spacecraft — the vehicle for Artemis missions to the Moon — since its inception. He previously served as deputy program manager, manager of the Avionics, Power, and Software Office, and deputy manager of the Vehicle Integration Office. On April 1, 2026, the Artemis II mission successfully launched with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard, completing a 10-day lunar flyby and traveling a record-breaking 252,756 miles from Earth.
Dana Weigel received the Eagle Manned Mission Award. As ISS Program Manager, she leads development, integration, and operations for the International Space Station, which celebrated 25 years of continuous human habitation on November 2, 2025. Weigel previously served as deputy chief of the Flight Director Office, where she led the Extravehicular Activity Recovery Team following a major in-flight spacewalk anomaly. She also served as a NASA flight director for STS-123.
The 69th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner is one of the most prestigious honor ceremonies in the U.S. aerospace community.