Space Pioneer award for the year 2015 was presented to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the Science and Engineering category during the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference held at Toronto in Canada during May 20 -24, 2015.

National Space Society (NSS) of USA presented this award in recognition of ISRO’s efforts in accomplishing Mars Mission in its very first attempt.

India realised her mission to Mars in the very first attempt, an historical feat by any space faring individual nation. Team “Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)” has built the spacecraft with five scientific payloads within a record time of 18 months and launched on November 5, 2013. The spacecraft and its payloads have performed as designed during the 300 days journey, traversing about 666 million kilometer in interplanetary space before entering the Mars Orbit on September 24, 2014. The spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit and the high resolution camera onboard MOM is configured to take full-disk color imagery of Mars at apoareion and close-ups at periareion. MOM has outlived the “Prime” mission life of 6 months in Mars orbit and continues to deliver scientifically significant datasets. Team MOM has proficiently handled the scientific, technical, managerial and financial aspects of the mission.

In 2009, NSS has presented similar award to ISRO in recognition of the great accomplishment they have made in the success of the Lunar Probe, Chandrayaan-1.

National Space Society (NSS) is an independent nonprofit educational membership organisation dedicated to the creation of a space faring civilisation.

The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist.