Thomas W. Hall of Mathews, an engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, received special recognition from the agency’s astronaut corps for his work on the Orion spacecraft.

Hall received the Silver Snoopy Award for being instrumental in developing program modifications to increase safety, efficiency and performance for flight test articles and the Orion static recovery test. Orion is NASA’s new human spacecraft that will carry astronauts to planetary destinations like an asteroid and eventually Mars.

Hall is a graduate of Thomas Nelson Community College.

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson recently presented the award in a ceremony at Langley. Hall received a Silver Snoopy lapel pin flown on board space shuttle mission STS-135, along with a letter of commendation and certificate signed by Caldwell Dyson.

The Silver Snoopy, the astronauts’ personal award, is presented to less than 1 percent of the total NASA workforce annually. It is given to NASA employe...