In October, we asked SpaceNews readers to vote on the finalists for this year’s SpaceNews Awards for Excellence and Innovation. More than 40,000 votes were cast by the time the poll closed Nov. 1.
The Readers’ Choice Award winners named below will be honored at our 3rd annual awards luncheon Dec. 10 in Washington along with the SpaceNews Award winners selected (but not yet announced) by the SpaceNews editorial team. The full slate of winners will also be featured in SpaceNews magazine that week.
A note for finalists: Winners of a Readers’ Choice Award are eligible to be selected as the SpaceNews Award winner in the same or different category. You or your organization will be notified in mid-November if you were chosen as the SpaceNews Award winner.
SpaceNews & Readers’ Choice Award Winners
Company of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Rocket Lab
Finalists: Virgin Orbit • Planet • Blue Canyon Technologies • Spaceflight Industries • Viasat • Spire
Corporate Leader of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky
Finalists: Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck • ULA CEO Tory Bruno • Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO Eileen Drake • NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber • Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer
Startup of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice: Relativity Space
Finalists: HawkEye 360 • IceEye • LeoLabs • Loft Orbital • LeoStella
Government Agency of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: NASA
Finalists: DARPA • ISRO • JAXA • CNES • DIU • Space Enterprise Council • CNSA
Government Leader (Civil) of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
Finalists: Jan Woerner, ESA • Kevin O’Connell, U.S. Office of Space Commerce • K. Sivan, ISRO • Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES • Wayne Monteith, FAA-AST • Mohammed Al Ahbabi, UAE Space Agency • Pascale Ehrenfreund, DLR
Government Leader (Military) of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: U.S. Air Force Gen. John “Jay” Raymond
Finalists: U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, commander, 45th Space Wing • U.S. Air Force Steve Butow, DIU director, space • U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers and Jim Cooper, House Armed Services Committee
Unsung Hero of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Brooke Owens Fellowship
Finalists: Karen St. Germain, NOAA • Jeff Manber, NanoRacks • Patricia Hynes, New Mexico Space Grant Consortium
Turnaround of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Maxar Technologies
Finalists: Firefly Aerospace • Aerojet Rocketdyne • Swarm • HySpeqIQ
Breakthrough of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: SpaceX’s Starhopper
Finalists: SpaceX’s Starlink • NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission • JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 • China’s Chang’e 4 lunar landing • Spaceflight’s SSO-A SmallSat Express rideshare mission • Spektr-RG • Northrop Grumman’s MEV-1 satellite serving mission
Deal of the Year
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Blue Origin forms Artemis lander “national team”
Finalists: SpaceX raises $1B+ • NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services awards • OneWeb raises $1B+ • HawkEye 360’s $70M Series B • Virgin Galactic’s IPO • Relativity’s $140M round • Raytheon-United Technologies merger • L3-Harris Corp. merger
Space Stewardship Award (sponsored by AGI)
SpaceNews Award: Announced live Dec. 10
Readers’ Choice Award: Iridium Communications
Finalists: OneWeb’s Responsible Space initiative • LeoLabs • Space Safety Coalition • Secure World Foundation • Moriba Jah • T.S. Kelso
Past Winners
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