T.S. Kelso Space Safety Award

The SDA presents the T.S. Kelso Award annually as a recognition of outstanding contributions to space flight safety of an individual or, if shared, multiple individuals, teams, and organisations.

The SDA gives this award to celebrate and acknowledge substantial, innovative, long-term, and practical original contributions to the advancement of space safety, and also the preservation of the space environment in one or more of the following space disciplines: operations, applied research, technology, law, or policy.

The first recipient of the award was T.S. Kelso, who the award is respectfully named after. T.S. Kelso’s professional career spanned decades of contributions in space operations, space situational awareness research and applications, creation of processes that enabled use of satellite operator data and tools to improve the understanding of space situational awareness and establishment of the Space Data Center. His leadership within the Space Data Centre provided technical improvements that ensured that the SDA stayed on the cutting edge of SSA accuracy.