news - 03.10.08

2007-2008 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS HONOR DAVID W. THOMPSON AND PETER DIAMANDIS

Washington, D.C.: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Washington D.C.-based Arthur C. Clarke Foundation yesterday honored the 2007-2008 winners of the Arthur C. Clarke Awards. In keeping with recent practice, two Awards were presented.

The “Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award” recognizes “an individual, a group or an entity that exemplifies the values and accomplishments of Sir Arthur's life. The award honors substantial and enduring contributions that relate the sciences and arts in meeting the challenges of contemporary life and the needs of tomorrow.”

The 2007-8 Lifetime Achievement Award winner is David W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Orbital Sciences Corporation.

The “Arthur C. Clarke Innovator’s Award” recognizes “initiatives or new inventions that have had recent impact on or hold particular promise for satellite communications and society, and stand as distinguished examples of innovative thinking.”

This year’s Innovator’s Award winner is global citizen, entrepreneur, educator, and champion of commercial space activity and flight Peter H. Diamandis.

Before co-founding Orbital in 1982, Mr. Thompson was special assistant to the president of Hughes Aircraft Company's Missile Systems Group and was a project manager and engineer on advanced rocket engines at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. As a college student, he worked on the first Mars landing missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on Space Shuttle projects at NASA's Langley Research Center and Johnson Space Center.

As a result of his work at Orbital, Thompson was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George Herbert Walker Bush, was honored as Virginia's Industrialist of the Year, and was named High-Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. In addition, he received the National Air and Space Museum Trophy by the Smithsonian Institution, was selected as Satellite Executive of the Year by Via Satellite Magazine, and was presented with the World Technology Award for Space by The Economist Magazine. See www.orbital.com for more information.

Peter H. Diamandis co-founded the International Space University in 1987, was a founder of Constellation Communications, Inc., in 1991, co-founded Space Adventures Ltd. in 1998, and has managed, participated in, or contributed to numerous commercial space ventures and initiatives.

In 1994, Diamandis created the X Prize Foundation. Ten years later, the Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation is creating prizes in five areas: Exploration (Space and Underwater), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition. For more information, visit www.xprize.org.

Past Clarke Lifetime Achievement winners are CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite, science fiction writer Ben Bova; former Matra Marconi Space board chairman Claude Goumy; retired Space Systems Loral chairman Robert Berry; and first Intelsat director general, Santiago Astrain. Clarke Innovator winners include Bigelow Aerospace’s Robert Bigelow, for leading the way for private sector entrepreneurs willing to advance space exploration and activity with minimum reliance on government programs, Dr. Brad Edwards, for leading in the design of a space elevator to move cargo to the Clarke Orbit from the Earth's surface; and D.K. Sachdev and Dr. S. Joseph Campanella, for designing and implementing the world’s first audio broadcasting (Worldspace) satellite.

The Awards were presented before an invited audience at Washington’s Cosmos Club on Monday, March 10. For information, contact Foundation Secretary Scott Chase at scottchase@verizon.net or 301/879-1613.

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