National Space Club and Foundation Announces Winner of 2021 Goddard Trophy: NASA & SpaceX Crew Demo-2 TeamThe National Space Club and Foundation is pleased to announcethe joint NASA and SpaceX team that contributed to the second successful demonstration mission (Demo-2) of the human spaceflight system is awarded the 2021 Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy in recognition of the team's exceptional service to this country and its space program.
The trophy is the Club's highest honor and is presented annually to honor the individual, or group of specifically named individuals, that have made a significant contribution to US leadership in the field of rocketry and astronautics. The award will be presented at the 64th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner, taking place at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Friday, September 17, 2021.
The joint NASA and SpaceX team is honored for the extraordinarily successful Demo-2 mission, considered by many to be the single most important achievement in U.S. human spaceflight during calendar year 2020. It marked the fulfillment of what had become NASA's aspirational mantra following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011: to once again be able to launch American astronauts, on American rockets, from American soil.
As a partnership between NASA and private industry, the Commercial Crew Program represents a dramatic change in how the United States operate in space. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley onboard the spacecraft took place on May 30, 2020 from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This was the first time that a private company had flown astronauts to and from the International Space Station. After a two-month stay at ISS, Dragon safely returned the crew back home to Earth, splashing down off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico and bringing the mission to a successful conclusion.
Members of the joint NASA and SpaceX team include Kathryn (Kathy) Lueders, NASA's Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, who served as the Manager of the NASA Commercial Crew Program from 2014-2020; Steve Stich, the current NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager, NASA Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley who flew on the Demo-2 mission and the following individuals from SpaceX: Elon Musk, Chief Engineer; Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer; Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of Flight Reliability; Benjamin (Benji) Reed, Senior Director, Human Spaceflight Programs; Joseph Petrzelka, Vice President of Spacecraft Engineering, and Balachandar Ramamurthy, Director of Flight Safety, among many others.
Ms. Lueders will accept the Trophy on behalf of the team at the64th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner. Individuals and organizations interested in attending may find more information on our website.