On April 20th, while on tour of NASA's facilities in Houston, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster Doug Kalitta was awarded a special honor. Kalitta Charters, Doug's company, has a longstanding history of working with NASA. The company ensures safe transportation of hardware, experiments, and team members after landing from trips to the International Space Station.
“It is an honor to receive such an award from NASA due to my work with them in space station experiment deliveries,” said Kalitta. “NASA does very interesting experiments in space, and it is an honor to be a small part in making that successful.”
The award itself is very unique in that it includes an ISS mission patch which was flown on the final Space Shuttle flight, STS-135, in 2011. “One of NASA’s primary goals of the International Space Station is to conduct world-class research,” said ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman. “A key component of conducting this research is the rapid return of samples from space. Kalitta plays a key role in rapidly transporting the science samples as well as other critical hardware from the landing site to the Johnson Space Center. The partnership between Kalitta and NASA is helping scientists around the world conduct important research and is helping NASA operate the International Space Station.”
Kalitta, who has been racing in the NHRA since 1998, is working hard with his team toward their third consecutive win at the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston. This will be his fifth event of the season and, if he wins, it would establish new personal records for this track. Doug is currently fifth on the all-time top fuel wins list with his most recent victory coming from winning at Atlanta in 2016. Katilla Motorsports can be followed online at www.teamkalitta.com or on Twitter @Air_Doug where Doug actively tweets about upcoming race events.
