Eugene M. Emme
Astronautical Literature
Awards
(1983–2013)
Thirty Years of Recognizing
Excellence in Publishing
American
Astronautical Society
(AAS)
Introduction
n March 1981, the chair of the AAS History Committee, Eugene
M. Emme, proposed establishing an Astronautical Literature
Award. The AAS board of directors approved this proposal in
1982. The first panel of judges convened in 1983 to consider titles
published since 1982 (the criteria stated that “Books will be eligible for
consideration in the year of its copyright and the following year.”) A
list of Emme Award recipients is provided in the following pages.
I
Following the 1985 death of Emme, NASA’s first historian, the award
was renamed in his memory.
The annual Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award
recognizes outstanding books that advance public understanding of
astronautics. It rewards originality, scholarship, and readability. Anyone,
including authors and publishers, can submit a title for consideration.
Submittals are limited to English-language books published (original
appearance or new addition) on aspects of spaceflight in a variety of
disciplines and ranging from juvenile and pop literature to texts intended
for academia or practicing scientists and engineers. In addition to
obvious topics of human spaceflight and unmanned interplanetary
explorations, nominated titles also cover related subjects, such as
astronomy and cosmology, in addition to the occasional nonastronautics title that has a space “flavor.” A panel of judges, comprising
select members of the AAS History Committee, considers titles and
selects the award recipients.
The Emme Award cycle is as follows:
April
AAS History Committee invites publishers to
submit titles for consideration.
May
AAS receives review copies from publishers.
May–August
September
Review panel reads titles submitted for
consideration and convenes to discuss.
Review panel informs AAS of title(s) chosen to
receive Emme Award and the list of finalists. AAS
informs recipient(s) and their publisher(s), and
issues a press release announcing the award
selection(s).
The award is presented to the recipient(s) at an AAS meeting
following the announcement.
In 2009, the AAS expanded the Emme Award to recognize titles that
were intended for children and young adults. It is affectionately known
as the “Emme Junior.” A list of recipients of the Emme Junior is
included following the list of recipients of the Emme Award.
The AAS History Committee wishes to acknowledge Joni Wilson,
copyeditor extraordinaire, and Ron Miller, production manager and
publishing maestro, for their gracious support of this effort to
commemorate an award that has grown in prestige since its inception
more than thirty years ago.
AAS History Committee
2015
Michael L. Ciancone
NASA Johnson Space Center
Chair
James R. Kirkpatrick (ex officio)
American Astronautical Society
Executive Director
Matthew Bille
Booz Allen Hamilton
Stephen E. Doyle
Dr. Donald C. Elder
Eastern New Mexico University
Randy Liebermann
Dr. Otfrid Liepack
Jet Propulsion Lab
Gideon Marcus
Ron Miller
Steve Garber
NASA Headquarters
R. Cargill Hall
Robert Jacobs
Univelt Incorporated
Dr. Stephen B. Johnson
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Dr. De Witt Kilgore
Indiana University
Dr. Roger D. Launius
Smithsonian Institution
Robert Pearlman
Dr. Asif Siddiqi
Fordham University
Dr. Trevor C. Sorensen
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Katherine Scott Sturdevant
Pikes Peak Community College
Dr. Rick W. Sturdevant
Air Force Space Command
Frank H. Winter
2013
Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story
of Unmanned Space Exploration
(Princeton University Press)
Chris Impey and Holly Henry
2012
The Visioneers: How A Group of Elite Scientists
Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies,
and a Limitless Future
(Princeton University Press)
W. Patrick McCray
2011
Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo
(The MIT Press)
Nicholas de Monchaux
2010
John F. Kennedy and the
Race to the Moon
(Palgrave Macmillan)
John M. Logsdon
The Red Rockets’ Glare:
Spaceflight and the Soviet
Imagination, 1857–1957
(Cambridge University Press)
Asif A. Siddiqi
2009
Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering
Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft
(University of Nebraska Press)
Jay Gallentine
2008
Digital Apollo—Human and Machines
in Spaceflight
(The MIT Press)
David A. Mindell
2007
Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War
(Knopf)
Michael J. Neufeld
2006
Into the Black: JPL and the American
Space Program, 1976–2004
(Yale University Press)
Peter J. Westwick
2005
First Man—The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
(Simon & Schuster)
James R. Hansen
2004
Right Stuff, Wrong Sex:
America’s First Women in Space Program
(The Johns Hopkins University Press)
Margaret Weitekamp
2003
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers,
and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel
(Joseph Henry Press)
Robert Zimmerman
2002
The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management
in American and European Space Programs
(The Johns Hopkins University Press)
Stephen B. Johnson
2001
Moon Lander— How We Developed
the Apollo Lunar Module
(Smithsonian Institution Press)
2000
Challenge to Apollo—The Soviet Union
and the Space Race 1945–1974
(NASA)
Asif A. Siddiqi
1999
America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites
and National Security
(University Press of Kansas)
Jeffrey T. Richelson
1998
This New Ocean—The Story of the
First Space Age
(Random House)
William E. Burrows
1997
Space and the American Imagination
(Smithsonian Institution Press)
Howard E. McCurdy
1996
Blind Watchers of the Sky—
The People and Ideas that Shaped Our View
of the Universe
(Addison-Wesley)
Rocky Kolb
1995
Spaceflight Revolution:
NASA Langley Research Center from
Sputnik to Apollo
(NASA)
James R. Hansen
1994
International Cooperation in Space:
The Example of the European Space Agency
(Harvard University Press)
Roger M. Bonnet and Vittorio Manno
1993
The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower’s Response
to the Soviet Satellite
(Oxford University Press)
Robert A. Divine
1992
Blueprint for Space:
From Science Fiction to Science Fact
(Smithsonian Institution Press)
Frederick I. Ordway and Randy Liebermann
1991
Exploring the Sun: Solar Science Since Galileo
(The Johns Hopkins University Press)
Karl Hufbauer
1990
The Home Planet
(Addison-Wesley)
Kevin W. Kelley
1989
Journey into Space:
The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration
(W.W. Norton & Company)
Bruce C. Murray
1988
No Award Given
1987
Before Lift Off
(The Johns Hopkins University Press)
Henry S. F. Cooper Jr.
1986
Pioneering the Space Frontier
Report of the National Commission on Space
(Bantam Books)
1985
Beachheads in Space
(Scribner)
Jerry Grey
1984
2010: Odyssey Two
(Del Rey)
Arthur C. Clarke
1983
Global Talk
(Sijthoff & Noordhoff)
Joseph N. Pelton
Emme Junior Awards
2012
Destined for Space: Our Story of Exploration
(Smithsonian Books and Capstone) by Don
Nardo (Children's Category)
Spacesuit: A History of Fact and Fiction
(Casemate Publishers) by Brett Goodin
(Young Adult Category)
2011
The Scientists Behind Space (Heinemann
Raintree, an imprint of Capstone) by Eve
Hartman (Children's Category)
Man on the Moon: How a Photograph Made
Anything Seem Possible (Compass Point, an
imprint of Capstone) by Pamela Dell (Young
Adult Category)
2010
Eight Great Planets! (Picture Window Books)
by Laura Purdie Salas (Children’s Category)
This is Rocket Science: True Stories of the Risktaking Scientists Who Figure Out Ways to Explore
Beyond Earth (National Geographic Children's
Books) by Gloria Skurzynski (Young Adult
Category)
2009
If I Were an Astronaut (Picture Window
Books) by Eric Braun (Children’s Category)
Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?
(Abrams ComicArts) by Brian Fies (Young
Adult Category)
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American Astronautical Society
(AAS)
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