• Innovation — for space technologies that benefit humanity

• Discovery — for breakthroughs that have most expanded the frontiers of human knowledge

• Human Achievement — for pioneering accomplishment in space that most benefited humanity

Dumbacher said the Neil Armstrong Space Prize stretches internationally across the major areas of the modern space industry — including government, defense and commercial aspects — and the goals set by each area. Nominees were received in all three categories under the Space Prize. Dumbacher also wanted to thank BryceTech for its support to the process development.

Purdue faculty, staff and students watched Tuesday (April 21) as the inaugural winners of the Neil Armstrong Space Prize were announced. Receiving the honor was the Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team for SpaceX. (Purdue University photo/Kelsey Lefever)

Nominations received in 2025 were extensively reviewed and narrowed down to six finalists in January. The advisory committee is led by Kathleen Howell, Purdue’s Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics; with Henry Yang, chancellor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the late George Smoot III, formerly of the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The advisory committee joined Dumbacher and selection committee members Jim Free, an aerospace executive; Kathryn Lueders, a commercial space consultant and retired NASA Human Exploration and Space Operations associate administrator; Rob Meyerson, CEO and co-founder of Interlune Corp. and former president of Blue Origin; and Thomas Zurbuchen, a Swiss-American astrophysicist and ETH Zurich space director, to thoroughly revisit and discuss each nomination.
A final nominee recommendation was passed along to Chiang and Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, in March.
Purdue leads all public institutions of higher learning for the number of alumni who have entered public and commercial space programs. Academic, government and industrial partnerships — including with NASA research centers and leading space economy industries — serve as a university hallmark with collaborative efforts that have resulted in advances in hypersonics, advanced propulsion systems, in-space manufacturing, and lunar and planetary surface mobility, which are critical to space discovery, economic opportunity and global security.
Purdue will send five Boilermakers on a research journey into space aboard a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight, dubbed Purdue 1, in 2027. This groundbreaking flight will include teaching and real-time research on board, making Purdue the first university to operate in space.
Known as the Cradle of Astronauts, Purdue has 30 alumni who have flown in space or been selected as NASA astronaut candidates.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.
Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu
Note to journalists:
Photos and video b-roll from the announcement is available on Google Drive.

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