Each year, during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the IAF rewards high-level space stakeholders through awards such as the :
IAF World Space Award that recognises a most eminent person with exceptional merit in space science, space technology, space medicine, space law or space management who has made a fundamental and global impact upon the world’s progress in astronautics.
Allan D. Emil Memorial Award that recognises an eminent person for an outstanding contribution or contributions in space which involved the participation of more than one nation and/or which furthered the possibility of greater international cooperation in astronautics,
Frank J. Malina Astronautics Medal that recognises outstanding contributions to space education by an educator who promotes the study of astronautics and space science
IAF Hall of Fame that recognises eminent individuals who have contributed substantially during the course of their careers to the progress of astronautics within the framework of the IAF activities.
The IAF is proud to introduce the 2016 awardees!
The winners were chosen by the Honours and Awards Committee (HAC). They will be invited to attend the Gala Dinner as guest of the IAF President (free of charge) and their registration fees for the IAC will be waived for the year of induction.
IAF WORLD SPACE AWARD
Yuri Koptev
Having graduated from The Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1965, Y. N. Koptev worked at different enterprises of the rocket-space industry at the Ministry of General Machine-Building Industry of the USSR (MOM), where he ran the gamut from senior engineer to Deputy Minister – leading civil- and science – oriented space programmes.
In February 1992 after the dissolution of the USSR, he became one of the initiators of the establishment of the Russian Space Agency -special central agency authorized for the rocket-space issues, in charge of which he had been for 12 years.
Outstanding organizing skills, deep scientific knowledge and persistence allowed Y. N. Koptev to save the entirety of the rocket-space industry during the reformation of the Soviet political and economic systems in the 1990-s and to prevent disorganisation of the scientific and technical potential and industrial system of this branch of industry.
Upon his initiative international large-scale projects were launched by the Russian Space Agency. The leading national enterprises and the Russian Academy of Science were deeply engaged in these projects.
Scientific and applied research of the near Earth space, implementation of the man-in-space program on the on-orbit station “Mir” by foreign astronauts, and launching of foreign space vehicles scientific equipment by Russian carrier boosters gave an opportunity to raise funds for Russian industry at the amount of over 6 billion dollars in the period between 1994 and 2004. Koptev contributed greatly to the development of ideology, engineering solutions and international agreements for the International Space Station establishment projects and Russian rocket “Souz” launch from the Guiana Space Centre (The European Space Agency (ESA)).
ALLAN D. EMIL MEMORIAL AWARD
Charles Elachi
Charles Elachi has been the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since May, 2001. Professor of Electrical Engineering and Planetary Science at Caltech. Dr. Elachi received his B.Sc. (’68) in physics from University of Grenoble, France; the Dipl. Ing. (’68) in engineering from the Polytechnic Institute, Grenoble, and both a M.Sc. (’69) and Ph.D. (’71) degree in electrical sciences from the California Institute of Technology. He also has a M.Sc. (‘83) degree in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA (’79) from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Elachi joined JPL in 1970. Prior to becoming Director, Dr. Elachi was JPL’s Director for Space and Earth Science Programs (beginning in 1982) where he was responsible for the development of numerous flight missions and instruments for Earth observation, planetary exploration and astrophysics.
He has been a principal investigator on a number of NASA-sponsored studies and flight projects including the Shuttle Imaging Radar series (Science Team Leader), the Magellan Imaging Radar (Team Member), and the Cassini Titan Radar (Team Leader). He is the author of over 230 publications in the fields of active microwave remote sensing and electromagnetic theory, and he holds several patents in those fields.
In 1989 Dr. Elachi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and has served on a number of academy committees. Dr. Elachi has received numerous awards, including the Aviation Week Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), 2016 National Space Trophy, an American University of Beirut Honorary Doctorate (2013), the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Congress Crystal Helmet Award (2012), the Pasadena Arts Council Inaugural AxS (Arts & Sciences) Award (2012), Lebanese American University Honorary Doctorate (2012), National Academy of Engineering Arthur M. Bueche Award (2011), “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France” (2011), Space Foundation J.E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award (2011), AIAA Carl Sagan Award (2011), Occidental College honorary Doctor of Science degree (2011), Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement (2008), International von Kármán Wings Award (2007), the America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (2006), the Royal Society of London Massey Award (2006), the Lebanon Order of Cedars (2006 and 2012), the Philip Habib Award for Distinguished Public Service (2006), the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award (2005), the Bob Hope Distinguished Citizen Award (2005), NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (2004, 2002, 1994), Takeda Award (2002), the Wernher von Braun Award (2002), UCLA Dept. of Earth and Science Distinguished Alumni Award (2002), Dryden Award (2000), NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1999), the COSPAR Nordberg Medal (1996), the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1994), the IEEE Medal of Engineering Excellence (1992), the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Distinguished Achievement Award (1987) and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1982).
FRANK J. MALINA ASTRONAUTICS MEDAL
Bénédicte Escudier
A graduate of SUPAERO (1979), passionate about Aerospace Engineering and Teaching, Bénédicte Escudier has been involved in the development of Space activities at SUPAERO after working for three years in the private sector as Head of Mission Performances and Attitude Control Simulation for a military Earth observation satellite project.
First women as Professor at SUPAERO, she reached rapidly the head of Space department of SUPAERO, and she has developed and supervised all Space-related courses in Space System Engineering and Space Science at ISAE-SUPAERO. She has also created and managed Post-Graduate Programs (TAS Astro). She has also contributed to international programs (Erasmus Mundus, SEEDS…) through European and Worldwide Partnerships.
More broadly, Bénédicte, especially at the head of International Affairs, participated to the strengthen of the international influence of SUPAERO and ISAE, creating opportunities for students to access US universities, ESA and NASA Programs since the 80s, by increasing the number of exchange students (over 130 incoming and outgoing students every year for engineering courses) through bilateral partnerships (especially double degree agreements). She also developed exchange programs and research opportunities with Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, China… And many other countries in the world.
Most of French Engineers, Managers and Experts in the field of Space Engineering have attended Bénédicte’s Courses during the last 30 years. She is very well known and respected in the domain, and her network is highly profitable for ISAE-SUPAERO and more especially students from the institution.
IAF HALL OF FAME
Wang Xiji
Professor Wang Xiji has devoted his academic and professional career to the promotion ofinto China’s space industry for over 65 years. Hegraduated from southwest combined university in machinery department in 1942 and studied in Virginia institute of technology in dynamic and fuel major in U.S. since 1948. In 1950, he came back to China and took up teaching in Dalian institute of technology and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Since 1958, as one of the organizers of the early research on rocket technology of China, Professor Wangserved as the technical leader of China’s first liquid fuel rocket and follow-on meteorological rocket.Then he creatively combined sounding rocket technology with guided missile technology and put forward technical concept of first launch vehicle. He took charge of system design of longmarch-1 launch vehicle and the development of nuclear test sampling rocket series.He served successivelyas the director of Beijing institute of space machinery and electricity institute, vice president and director of science and technology committee of CAST and chief engineer of the ministry of astronautics since 1965.
Professor Wang became thechief designer of recoverable satelliteand took charge of development concept based upon domestic technological and industrial basis. The satellite return technology reached international advance level. In 1975, China’s first recoverable satellite was successfully launched then and China became the third country in the world mastering this high technology.He won the national scientific and technological progress prize of special class for returnable satelliteand dongfanghong-1 satellite in 1985.He was also the chief designer of double star programs which was significant international space cooperation with ESA in 21st century.
Under his leadership, a great number of new technologies were adopted and a series of critical technologies were broken through and thus the function of the satellites was enhanced and its lifetime lengthened.In 1987, he was elected as the member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).Due to his initiation and participation in the development of two new disciplines of uncontrolled rocket and space return technologies，Professor Wang was elected as the member of Chinese Academy of Science in 1993.
U.R. Rao
Professor U R Rao is an internationally renowned space scientist who has made original contributions to the development of space technology in India and its extensive application to communications and remote sensing of natural resources.
Prof. Rao was the Director of ISRO Satellite Centre at Bangalore during 1972-1984 and Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary, Department of Space during 1984-1994. Presently he is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad, which is considered as the cradle of India’s Space Program / Chairman, Karnataka Science & Technology Academy / Chairman, Advisory Committee for Space Science, ISRO / Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
Manfred Fuchs
Manfred Fuchs was born in 1938 in Latsch, South Tirol, Italy. At the age of 17 he became the youngest pilot in Italy. One year later he went to Germany. After his studies of Aeronautics in Munich and Hamburg he began his career in the newly created space company ERNO and became involved in projects like ARIANE-1, SPACELAB, and COLUMBUS.
Manfred Fuchs was one of the early Post World War II space pioneers in Germany. He started his industrial career in ERNO, Bremen, until he and his wife created their own space company OHB which was developed in less than 30 years to the number one national space enterprise in Germany with subsidiary companies in various European countries and almost 2500 employees.
OHB’s success story is based on many things but in the center are innovative solutions and small satellites. The early work in this field laid the basis for winning the SAR-Lupe constellation for the German Ministry of Defense with 5 radar reconnaissance satellites all launched and operated without a problem. Then, in 2007 a large ESA contract for the development of small geostationary satellites gave OHB the opportunity to further improve their capabilities in the field of telecommunications satellites. A major company highlight was the successful acquisition of the contract to develop and build 14 Galileo satellites in 2010. In the same year Thales-Alenia with OHB as subcontractor won 6 Meteosats from ESA/Eumetsat which created a dramatic increase of the order book. All along OHB acquired other companies in Europe. The most important ones were Carlo Gavazzi, MAN-Technologie AG in 2005 and Kayser-Threde in 2007. OHB has eventually become an “Aktiengesellschaft” and in 2015 a “Societe Europeen” (SE).
Norman Crabill
“I was one of the cohort that was in the right place at the right time: NASA`s evolution from Aeronautical Research to Space Exploration. I worked at NASA`s Langley Research Center with the pioneers of our space program, from 1949 (NACA) to 1986 (NASA).
One of Langley’s early space projects was ECHO I, a 100 foot diameter balloon to be the first communication satellite and an explorer of the upper atmosphere. My job was to put it 200 miles up over Wallops Island to test its inflation process before putting it into orbit. I designed the two-stage solid propellant SHOTPUT rocket, solving the dynamic roll- resonance problem of unguided sounding rockets with help from coworkers. The first one was launched on October 28, 1959. It took 5 launches to get the balloon to open properly. For ECHO II, the 135 foot diameter follow-on, I tested its deployment process by launching it on a one-stage Douglas THOR rocket from Canaveral, with a real-time down-linked TV and a recoverable film camera on front of the THOR which monitored the balloon’s unfolding. Two launches were required in 1960 to get the balloon to open properly. Some of the astronauts at the Cape at that time came over to see our real-time TV downlink.
We used the same SHOTPUT rocket to test the Italian SAN MARCO satellite at Wallops two times, before its launch into its satellite orbit.
Following that was LUNAR ORBITER, the precursor to the APOLLO program. Langley was given the job of finding landing sites for APOLLO, and I became the Mission Design Manager in the LUNAR ORBITER Project Office. With 5 launches planned, we should be able to get enough photos for Apollo. My job was to get answers to: When do we launch, What are the trajectories, and Where do we take the pictures? NASA Headquarters told us to consult with the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff AZ to select the sites on the Moon to be photographed, so I and my assistant Tom Young visited Larry Rowan there and selected a number of promising sites. We changed the mission concept from shooting all 212 frames at one site on each mission, to doing 10 sites on each mission, causing extensive changes to the mission profile, and the operation of the on-board film-camera system, which we successfully developed with our Boeing contractor. Our first mission, August 1976, succeeded in getting the photos, including an un-planned first photo of the Earth from the Moon, and discovering the Lunar Gravity Field anomalies, which we had to account for in real time, and which influenced the APOLLO trajectories too.
After the third successful mission, APOLLO didn’t need any more sites, and Project Manager Cliff Nelson asked me “What will we do with numbers 4 and 5?” I said “We’ll map the Moon on number 4, and do other Science on number 5”. And we did. All told, FIVE successful missions in 1966 -1967, a first for NASA Lunar missions at that time.
In 1968, many of the LUNAR ORBITER Team at NASA Langley went on to start the Viking Project to put two landers on MARS in 1973. In January 1970, HQ told us the launches were slipped to 1975 due to budget problems. I had to tell our Project Manager Jim Martin we could not get there in 1975 using the Titan launch vehicle like we planned for the 1973 launch due to the different positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits. He replied “ Norman, you will find a way”. And my Mission Design Team, which included Langley, and my contractors at Langley, and JPL, and some help from Houston, did, after a six month study. Using the same Titan launcher, we found we could get there launching in 1975 if we took an 11 month trajectory, instead of the 6 month trajectory that the Earth-Mars planetary positions allowed for in the1973 opportunity. That 11 month trip around the Solar System type of interplanetary trajectory had never been done before, but we did it, launching twice in 1975, and getting to Mars in 1976, and landing number one successfully on July 20, 1976, and number two on September 3 1976. Our observations from orbit on both missions showed the preselected sites were NOT acceptable, so we went through an unplanned mission re-design process to find acceptable sites. And we did, TWO for TWO! The interplanetary trajectory design solution was just the beginning of the development by JPL of many other innovative trajectory designs, including close fly-bys of other planets to get a ‘gravity boost’.
After Viking, I worked on airplane problems, including Langley’s “Storm Hazards Program”, and after retirement, worked for the FAA as a contractor, advising them on the development of their new weather data systems. Later, I worked as a consultant to ViGYAN Inc of Hampton Virginia, developing the Pilot Weather Advisor System to put real-time weather data on the GPS moving map in aircraft using a satellite down-link, which is in general use today. We got the patent in 1993. I also put together a consortium that developed a technology for Lightning-Proofing composite aircraft, which also is in use today. In 2003, with ViGYAN, we put a digital Flight Recorder on Ken Hyde`s 2003 replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer, and presented my results in a paper to the AIAA in 2006. I have authored and co-authored many other papers about the work I have done, to ensure that the results can be known by others. Also, I have mentored youngsters, of ages 5 to 25 about science and engineering, including interns at work, and others that have come into my life. One of the things I pass along is that when you are trying to do something that has never been before, the unexpected frequently happens, and to succeed, you may have to deal with it in real time, without recourse to re-engineering the whole system. I have been fortunate to have been in that CAN-DO environment in my whole career, working with like-minded people in government and industry who wanted to Make It Happen in spite of real obstacles.”