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.
Nominations will open soon for the 2026 T.S. Kelso Space Safety Award
Nominations will open soon for our annual T. S Kelso Award. The award is presented by the SDA 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 SDA welcomes nominations for an individual or, if shared, multiple individuals, teams, or organisations.
The prestigious award is a symbol of outstanding achievement, and was last year presented to Prof. Dr. Thomas Schildknecht, a leading expert in space debris, space safety and space sustainability, and a pioneer of optical space debris tracking.
Previous winners:
2021 – Dr. T.S. Kelso
2022 – Holger Krag
2023 – EU SST
2024 – Prof. Dr. Thomas Schildknecht
2025 – Diana McKissock
Diana KcKissock, 2025 winner
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.