Space Communicator Award
The Space Communicator Award is given to a professional communicator who has made an important contribution to the public's understanding of and appreciation for the accomplishments of the American space program. This category includes journalists, government public affairs professionals, industry public relations professionals, broadcasters, publishers, and public figures. The award category was first created in 1997 in memory of Stephen Gauvain, a space journalist with KTRK/Houston ABC Channel 13, who served on the RNASA Foundation Board of Advisors and helped with the annual program production until his untimely death by car accident in 1996. He covered more than sixty space shuttle launches and was a quarter finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space program.
Nominations
Nominations for awards will be solicited between September 30 - November 4, 2024. Winners are selected by a committee of previous award winners and RNASA board members. Nominations for the 2025 Space Communicator Award are due November 4, 2024. To make a nomination, the Space Communicator Award nomination form must be completed.
Nominations for awards are solicited each fall with winners selected by a committee of previous award winners and RNASA board members.
Direct any questions to RNASA Chairman Rodolfo González.
Winners
| 2024 | Gina Sunseri, ABC News Producer |
| 2020 (Awarded in 2022) |
Bill Ingalls, NASA senior photographer |
| 2018 | William Shatner, actor, author, producer, and director |
| 2017 | Rob Navias, Johnson Space Center Public Affairs Office (PAO) Mission Commentator and lead for the Program and Television Operations |
| 2016 | Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author and inventor |
| 2014 | Chris A. Hadfield, former astronaut |
| 2013 | Veronica McGregor of NASA Jet Propulsion Lab |
| 2008 | Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History |
| 2006 | Mark Carreau of the Houston Chronicle |
| 2004 | NASA/Contractor Communications Team Members. NASA members; Allard Beutel, Bob Jacobs, Glenn Mahone, Dan Carpenter, James Hartsfield, Eileen Hawley, Kyle Herring, Kelly Humphries, Rob Navias, Steve Nesbitt, Bruce Buckingham, Bill Johnson, Dave Drachlis, and June Malone. Contractor members; Jeff Carr, Mike Curie, Kari Fluegel, Jessica Rye, Kari Allen, Ed Memi, Jeff Adams, Marion Lanasa, and Bill Salvin. |
| 2003 | Elliot G. Pulham of the Space Foundation |
| 2002 | Miles O'Brien of CNN |
| 1998 | William Harwood of UPI, CBS, Space News, and The Washington Post |
| 1997 | Stephen Gauvain of KTRK/Channel 13 ABC |