List of Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Memorial Award winners

The Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Memorial Award was established in 1960 to honor Nelson P. Jackson, a founder and first president of the National Space Club. This award is the club's second most prestigious honor and it recognizes outstanding contributions to advancements in the missile, aircraft, and space fields.

Described by NASA as “the space world's equivalent of an Academy Award"^[1] it is presented annually by the National Space Club during the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C.

Nelson P. Jackson was a highly decorated Air Force colonel, involved in the military atomic energy program, and had served with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was also a prominent D.C. attorney and the D.C. manager for GE's Atomic Energy Division.

The National Space Club is the premier non-profit organization dedicated to advancing space leadership, technology, and education in the United States. Bringing together industry leaders, government officials, educators, and private individuals, the club fosters collaboration in astronautics and ensures that critical space-related information is shared with the public.^[2]^[3]^[4]

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Year	Company/Organization	Image	Achievement	Notes
1960	Bell Aerospace Company, Douglas Aircraft Company, General Electric		For development of the Discoverer Satellite	^[2]
1961	Rocketdyne, Bell Aerosystems, Douglas Aircraft, GE, and Lockheed Corp.	TIROS VI satellite	Discoverer 13, developed the first recovery of a vehicle from space (August 11, 1960).	^[5]^[2]
1962	RCA - Astro-Electronics Division	TIROS VI satellite	Designed and constructed the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS).	^[6]^[2]
1963	AT&T	TIROS VI satellite	Developed the Telstar communications satellite.	^[7]
1964	McDonnell Aircraft and General Dynamics	TIROS VI satellite	Developed the Project Mercury capsule (McDonnell) and Atlas booster rocket (General Dynamics).	^[8]^[2]
1965	Pratt & Whitney		Demonstrated the technical feasibility of liquid hydrogen as the next high-energy fuel for space exploration.	^[9]
1966	NASA, U.S. Air Force, Aerojet, GE, IBM, Westinghouse		Recognized all teams responsible for the five successful crewed flights in Project Gemini.	^[10]
1967	Boeing		Developed the Lunar Orbiter program.	^[11]
1968	Hughes Aircraft		Developed the Surveyor spacecraft that soft-landed on the Moon.	^[12]
1969	Rocketdyne, North American Rockwell		Developed the Lunar Module ascent engine.	^[2]
1970	The Grumman Corporation			^[2]
1971	NOAA Space Technology Team		For Advancement in space research goals.	^[13]^[2]
1972	Boeing		Designed the Lunar Rover.	^[14]
1973	General Electric			^[2]
1974	NASA Ames-TRW Systems Pioneer 10 Team		NASA Pioneer 10 space probe that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter	^[2]
1975	NASA-Fairchild Industries and the ATS-6 Team		For the ATS-6, the world's first educational satellite	^[2]
1976	The Delta Launch Vehicle Team of NASA and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company		For developing the Delta Launch Vehicle rocket-powered expendable launch systems	^[2]
1977	Denver Division of Martin Marietta Aerospace		For its superb technical achievement in successfully operating two spacecraft on the planet Mars with the Viking Program.	^[15]^[2]
1978	TRW		Work on the High Energy Astronomy Observatory.	^[16]
1979	Hughes Aircraft		Pioneer Venus project mission.	^[17]
1980	The JPL/Industry Team			^[4]
1981	The NASA/Industry Centaur Team: Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp.; Honeywell, Inc.; NASA/Lewis Research Center; Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Group, United Technologies Corporation; Teledyne Systems Company		For the development of the Centaur rocket stage.	^[4]
1982	The Industrial Team led by Rockwell International Corporation under NASA leadership			^[4]
1983	McDonnell Douglas		Developed the Payload Assist Module (PAM).	^[18]
1984	Ball Corp.		Built the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).	^[19]
1985	Martin Marietta Aerospace			^[4]
1986	The JSC-Hughes Corp. LEASAT Salvage Team		for first satellites to be designed for launch from the Space Shuttle payload bay	^[4]
1987	JPL and the Voyager Industry Project Team		Contributions to the Voyager Project.	^[20]^[21]
1988	NASA		For the High Energy Astronomy Observatory Program HEAO	^[4]
1989	Delta 181 Mission Team, McDonnell Douglas		For the Delta 181 Mission, Thrust Vector Experiment	^[22]
1990	NASA/JPL Government-Industry Voyager Telemetry Array Team		For the Voyager Telemetry Array, the system of antennas and equipment used on Earth to receive and process telemetry data from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft	^[23]
1991	NASA and the Goddard Space Flight Center		For the Hubble Space Telescope	^[4]
1992	NASA/TRW team		For the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory	^[24]
1993	NASA		Hubble Telescope Repair Mission.	^[25]
1994
1995	The Clementine team, Naval Research Lab.		For the Clementine spacecraft design, that was used to build the most comprehensive, multispectral geologic lunar map to date."	^[26]
1996	US Air Force and Lockheed Martin		For designing, building, and launching the Milstar satellite communication system	^[27]
1997
1998
1999
2000	NASA and JPL		For the Galileo spacecraft	^[1]
2001	TRW Systems Group with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center		For the Chandra X-ray Observatory	^[4]^[28]
2002	The Aqua Science Team and NASA		For the Aqua satellite	^[29]^[30]
2003	NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Northrop Grumman Corporation		For the orbit success of NASA's Aqua Earth Observing System (EOS), Aqua satellite	^[31]
2004	Goddard Space Flight Center and Northrop Grumman		For work on the TDRSS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and the Space Network.	^[32]^[33]
2005
2006	The Cassini-Huygens probe team		For The Cassini-Huygens probe, a space probe sent to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.	^[34]
2007	Lockheed Martin and the University of Washington		For the Stardust spacecraft and the identification of possible interstellar dust particles from the capsule's return to Earth in 2006	^[35]
2008
2009	The MESSENGER team		For developing the NASA robotic space probe MESSENGER that orbited the planet Mercury	^[36]^[37]
2010	Boeing		For fielding the first three Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft	^[4]
2011	Boeing		For the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Program	^[38]
2012	JPL, Mars Curiosity Mission Team		For the Mars Curiosity rover	^[39]
2013	The Mars Science Laboratory Team		Recognized for its significance in successfully landing on and exploring the Martian surface.	^[40]
2014	Boeing's X-51A WaveRider Team		For the uncrewed X-51A WaveRider autonomous flight demonstrator that is "leading the way to hypersonic flight."	^[41]
2015	The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) team with MIT Lincoln Laboratory		For the Lunar Laser Communication System	^[42]
2016	Dawn project team and NASA		For the Dawn spacecraft, the first mission to orbit two extraterrestrial targets and the first to encounter a dwarf planet.	^[43]
2017	Juno Mission Team, Lockheed Martin		For the Juno spacecraft mission	^[3]
2018	U.S. Military and Industry Team		For the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) System	^[44]
2019	Delta II Rocket Team		For 29 years of the success with the Delta II rocket program	^[4]
2020	The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration Team	TIROS VI satellite	For significantly contributing to our knowledge base with the first picture of a Black Hole with Event Horizon Telescope	^[45]
2021	Parker Solar Probe Team		Efforts to untangle the long-standing mysteries of the complex solar environment with the Parker Solar Probe.	^[46]
2022	The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies Team		For the Sentry-II, asteroid monitoring system	^[47]
2023	John Hopkin, Applied Physics Laboratory APL		Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART mission.	^[48]
2024	Artemis I Team		Recognized for the historic Artemis I launch.	^[49]
2025	SpaceX		For achieving the first-ever “catch” of a returning space booster with the SpaceX Super Heavy.	^[50]

List of Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Memorial Award winners

References

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