SOFIA Selected for California Space Authority SpotBeam Award

November 8, 2007

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has been selected by the California Space Authority (CSA) as a recipient of the 2007 SpotBeam Award for space innovation. The CSA SpotBeam Award program recognizes California space stakeholders who make extraordinary contributions to California's leadership in the United States and international space arenas. The SOFIA program is being recognized for its debut at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on June 27, 2007 with NASA Ames Research Center as the host of SOFIA's science and mission operations center and international leadership from DLR, the German Aerospace Center. The awards are designed to help showcase the important role space enterprise plays in the everyday lives of ordinary Americans.

Dr. Fred Tarantino, the President and CEO of USRA, says, "We are proud of SOFIA receiving this prestigious award. It is testament to the quality of the leadership and staff of the program." SOFIA is just one of the space and suborbital observatory missions under NASA's Origins Program, which along with the ground-based observatories paves the way for future achievements. As each Origins mission makes radical advances in technology, innovations will be fed forward, from one generation of missions to the next."

A packed house of 300 space enterprise leaders toasted the 2007 recipients of the California Space Authority's SpotBeam Awards the evening of November 8, 2007. The black-tie event showcased the important role space enterprise plays in the everyday lives of ordinary Americans and was the climax event of the annual Transforming Space 2007 Conference.

"The SpotBeam Awards Dinner is a rare opportunity for all segments of the California space enterprise community to celebrate each others' 2007 accomplishments," stated Andrea Seastrand, Executive Director of the California Space Authority. "It isn't easy to narrow them down, but the SpotBeam Awards honor those who have made unique contributions in their specific areas of space enterprise expertise."

For an in-depth synopsis of each award winner and the category, please visit: http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/_spotbeam awards/2007.html

Read the commendation letter from California Space Authority (pdf)