Awards¶

International SpaceOps 2023 Award for Outstanding Achievement¶

The Mission Control Team is very excited to receive this award. To have the mission recognized by an international body such as SpaceOps is a great honor!
We therefore want to extend a big thank you to all of our experimenters that have helped us make this mission such a success. It is thanks to your innovative ideas, vocal support and infinite patience that we have come so far.

Find out more in following articles:
OPS-SAT Mission Team Wins International Operations Award
Flying Laboratory Wins 2023 International SpaceOps Award

Pictures¶

Team¶

back: Vladimir Zelenevskiy, Dominik Marszk, Sam Bammens
front: Omiros Papadatos Vasilakis, Rodrigo Laurinovics, David Evans

Speech¶

David Evans:
"I am deeply honored and humbled to accept this award on behalf of the OPS-SAT Mission Control Team. Those on stage, those that could not make it and all those that made significant contributions over the last decade. And there are many.
Many thanks to the Awards Committee for choosing us and ESA management for proposing us because we are not a classic mission or obvious choice.
So what are we? Allow me to describe the OPS-SAT concept in just two sentences.
Firstly: It is about a creating a safe space in orbit for doing everything you would love to do on own your satellite but you would never get permission.
Secondly: It is about opening it up to everybody without requiring paperwork and free of charge.
When we initially suggested this people called us crazy but time has been kind to us and now we have a network of dedicated users. These include: Primes, new space, universities and international space agencies. And it is global: JAXA, NASA, CNES, DLR, EU Commission, MIT.
Our experience clearly shows that when operations people are let loose, we can be as fast and innovative as any trendy start-up.
And so I would like to dedicate this award to those OPS-SAT experimenters. You are the heart of the mission, your work is the real reason we are up here today and we hope to serve you for many years to come. Conference, thank you! "

Previously awarded missions:¶

2020: DAWN and MAVEN (NASA)
2018: Cassini (NASA) and Grace (DLR)
2016: New Horizons (NASA)
2014: TerraSAT and TanDEM (DLR)
2012: Hayabusa (JAXA)
2010: NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity (NASA/ESA)
2008: Ulysses (NASA/ESA)
2006: LANDSAT 6 (U.S. Geological Survey / NASA)