In a March ceremony, NASA presented Valcor’s Yuri Gerasimov with its Silver Snoopy, an award given to candidates who have significantly contributed to the human space flight program. Less than one percent of the aerospace program workforce receives the Silver Snoopy annually, making the award a special honor. Gerasimov played a key role in developing the oxygen tank pressurization assembly, a main propulsion system component within the core state oxygen pressurization system.

“We are proud and honored to be a supplier to Boeing and a member of the Space Launch System (SLS) Team,” says Tom Iervolino, VP of business development and corporate strategies at Valcor. “As a company, we are inspired every day by the importance of the mission and also the work performed by talented scientists and engineers making this happen. Yuri Gerasimov is one of those inspirational engineers. From his early days as a design engineer, it was clear that Yuri would be turning out some incredible valve designs. Two decades later, as Chief Engineer for Valcor’s Aerospace Engineering Product Group, he and his team are still turning out some very cool designs; most recently for the SLS Program.”

The Silver Snoopy award is a sterling silver lapel pin designed by “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles Schulz. Each Snoopy pin flew on a Space Shuttle mission. The one given to Gerasimov was aboard Expedition 25, a mission to the International Space Station on October 27, 2010.

NASA Astronaut Colonel Douglas H. Wheelock presented the award to Gerasimov, along with a certificate of appreciation and commendation letter. The retired Colonel logged more than 178 days in space, including those spent on Expedition 25.