SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing Team Awarded inaugural Neil Armstrong Space Prize

Five SpaceX employees who developed the Falcon 9 rocket’s vertical landing capability were honored as the first recipients of the Neil Armstrong Space Prize during a ceremony on Tuesday night (Sept. 15) at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. The winners were initially announced in April, but the physical award was presented at the event hosted by Purdue University.

Purdue, often referred to as the “cradle of astronauts” due to its 30 graduates who have flown in space, established the annual international award in honor of its most famous alumnus. Mark Lundstrom, dean of Purdue’s College of Engineering, emphasized that the prize recognizes the same spirit of engineering excellence and courage demonstrated by Armstrong.

“Neil Armstrong’s achievement rested on extraordinary engineering, teamwork and the courage to attempt what had never been done before,” Lundstrom said in a statement. “The Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team carries that spirit forward. By making rocket reuse practical at unprecedented scale, they changed the economics of spaceflight and opened new possibilities for science, exploration and commerce.”

The five honorees represent the broader team responsible for the Falcon 9’s reusable first stage: Lars Blackmore, senior principal Mars landing engineer; Shana Diez, senior director of Starship reliability; Jon Edwards, senior vice president of Falcon & Dragon projects; Yoshiaki Kuwata, principal guidance, navigation and control engineer; and Eduardo Velazquez, director of Crew Starship engineering.

While the concept of a reusable first stage was part of the Falcon 9’s design when it debuted in June 2010, realizing it proved far more complex than anticipated. Kuwata, who joined SpaceX in 2012, noted that while hand calculations suggested the landing could be achieved in about six months, practical implementation took three to four years.

The historic milestone occurred on Dec. 21, 2015, during the rocket’s 20th flight, when the first stage successfully touched down vertically at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station after deploying 11 Orbcomm satellites into orbit. A major subsequent achievement came on April 8, 2016, when a booster landed on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

These landings have become routine; SpaceX has now executed more than 650 booster landings during orbital missions. Six different Falcon 9 first stages have each completed over 30 launches and landings, with Booster 1067 leading the pack at 37 flights. This extensive reuse contributed to the Falcon 9 conducting 165 successful missions in 2025, accounting for roughly half of all global orbital launches that year.

The success has spurred interest in the industry, with two Chinese rockets achieving successful first-stage landings in recent months. Velazquez welcomed the competition, stating, “We didn’t start from scratch… The fact that we are able to advance the bar so that everybody else is landing first stages is just great. I think we all move forward together.”

SpaceX is preparing to eventually retire the Falcon 9 in favor of Starship, a fully reusable super-heavy lift vehicle designed for lunar and Martian exploration. Starship has conducted 13 suborbital test flights, with SpaceX successfully recovering the Super Heavy booster three times using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms at its Starbase facility in Texas.

Kuwata identified the reusability of Starship’s second stage, known as Ship, as the next significant challenge. While simulations indicate success, he noted that real-world precision remains to be fully proven. “I feel we will find out more things along the way by trying many times,” Kuwata said. Velazquez agreed, adding, “We’re getting pretty close to catching a Ship.”