The International Academy of Astronautics presents this award in recognition of extraordinary performance and achievement by teams of scientists, engineers and managers in the field of astronautics. This honour has been awarded only twice before - to the Russian Mir Space Station Team and the US Space Shuttle Team. Now the SOHO team joins this select group.

The citation of the award for the SOHO team reads: "To the team of scientists, engineers and managers for the development and operation of a world-class mission leading to substantial advancements in understanding the Sun and the solar-terrestrial relationship."

SOHO has an impressive and unique list of achievements. For instance, it produced the first ever images of the turbulent outer shell of the Sun and of the structure below sunspots. It gave the most precise measurements of the solar temperature structure, the interior rotation and the gas flows inside the Sun. It measured the acceleration of the fast and slow solar winds and discovered new solar phenomena, such as solar tornadoes. It revolutionised our ability to forecast space weather, and helped our understanding of the impact of solar variability on Earth's climate.

During eight years of operation, the team has had to face several heart-stopping moments, but with extraordinary team spirit, skill and competence, they turned these episodes into remarkable success stories. In June 1998, control of the spacecraft was lost and the team fought for three months before regaining contact with the spacecraft. Then all three on-board gyroscopes failed. Again, the team rose to the challenge by reprogramming the spacecraft to eliminate completely the reliance on gyroscopes. In doing so, they crossed another frontier in space - SOHO became the first three-axis stabilised spacecraft to be operated without gyroscopes.

Most recently, in May 2003, the SOHO team recorded signs of a possible breakdown in the east-west pointing mechanism of the high-gain antenna. They feared that the mission was again in danger. After a long and careful analysis of all options, the team once more found a solution. They decided to 'park' the antenna in an ideal position (where data losses are minimised), by rotating the spacecraft 180 degrees every three months. In addition, they established new procedures and the use of larger ground antennae (when available) to all but eliminate the impacts to normal science operations.

At all times of the mission, the team continued to produce excellent science, and SOHO has revolutionised the way scientists think about the Sun and how it might affect the Earth's environment. More than 1500 papers, representing the work of more than 1500 scientists, have been published based on SOHO data. With SOHO still going strong, the success story is set to continue.

Bernhard Fleck and Pål Brekke, ESA's SOHO Project Scientist and Deputy Project Scientist, said: "We feel very honoured to receive this award on behalf of the SOHO science teams, especially considering the prestigious teams that have won before. It is a boost for all of us involved in this mission to know that our work has been recognised in this way."

Note to editors

The award ceremony took place on 28 September 2003, the opening day of the 54th International Astronautical Congress, in Bremen, Germany.

The International Academy of Astronautics was founded in 1960, in Stockholm, Sweden, to foster the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes. Its current membership includes individuals from 68 countries.

SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA to study the Sun, from its deep core to the outer corona, and the solar wind. Fourteen European countries, led by the European Space Agency and prime contractor Astrium (formerly Matra-Marconi), built the SOHO spacecraft. It carries twelve instruments (nine European-led and three American-led) and was launched by an NASA's Atlas II-AS rocket on 2 December 1995. Mission operations are coordinated at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. The spacecraft was designed for a two-year-mission but its spectacular success has led to two extensions of the mission, the first until 2003, and then again until March 2007.

For more information, contact:

ESA Communication Department
Media Relations Office
Paris, France
Tel: +33 (0)153 69 71 55
Fax: +33 (0)153 69 76 90

Bernhard Fleck, ESA SOHO Project Scientist
c/o NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Tel: +1 301 286 4098
E-mail: bfleck@esa.nascom.nasa.gov