Prestigious Award for SOHO Team

The surface image was taken with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) at 304 Å. The hottest areas appear almost white and are called active regions. Often sunspots are found beneath these brighter areas. The cutaway reveals some of the structure and dynamics of the solar interior as derived from the MDI instrument. The SOHO spacecraft is hovering in space about 1.5 million km from the Earth but still 148 million km from the Sun.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) team has been presented with the prestigious Laurels for Team Achievement Award of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

The award recognizes both the outstanding achievements in designing, building and operating the mission, as well as the science it has performed. It is a tribute to a team that delivered an extraordinarily successful space mission. The award ceremony took place on 28 September 2003, the opening day of the 54th International Astronautical Congress, in Bremen, Germany.

The IAA presents the Laurels for Team Achievement Award in recognition of extraordinary performance and achievement by teams of scientists, engineers and managers in the field of astronautics. This honor 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."

"I feel very honored to receive this award on behalf of the SOHO science teams, especially considering the prestigious teams that have won before," said Dr. Joseph Gurman, NASA Project Scientist for SOHO at Goddard. "It is a boost for all of us involved in this mission to know that our work has been recognized in this way."

For more on SOHO's Team Achievement Award, visit: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2003/03-89.htm