Recognized for their notable space achievement in developing a key capability for the global space industry was the Ariane 4 launch team. Honored for their coverage of the U.S. space program since its earliest days, Life Magazine received the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award.

Highlighted throughout the opening ceremony was the Space Foundations special interest in education, to help attract not only the best and brightest students to a career in space, but also fortify the work of teachers to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

Receiving this years Education Achievement Award was Space Center Houston and its impressive roster of museum and academic programs.

The Space Foundation announced a new award this year, the Jack Swigert Award for Space Exploration. The Foundation was founded 21 years ago, in part to honor the memory and accomplishments of Swigert, who had flown aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

The Foundation chose the NASA Mars Exploration Team for their pioneering work and the success of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity as the first recipients of the Jack Swigert Award. Eugene Tattini, Deputy Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and several team members of JPLs Mars Exploration Rover program accepted the award.

Lockheed Martins Michael Coats underscored the need to answer the call for a "renewed spirit of discovery, likening the new space exploration initiative to the Lewis and Clark expedition 200 years ago. "We as an industry must do more to reach out and inspire the next generation to look at math, science and engineering as careers," he said.

Coats, a former astronaut, noted that "exploration is never easyexploration is not without risk" as evidenced by the tragic loss of the crew of space shuttle Columbia last year. The nation will need all the talent it can muster, including that of future generations, to go back to the Moon, on to Mars and beyond, he said.