At ISDC Thursday night the Space Tourism Society, in conjunction with the NSS, gave out the 2006 ORBIT awards for those people and organizations who have done the most to support the space tourism industry. The official list of awardees actually excludes one person: Dennis Tito was a surprise winner of his new eponymous award, which went to orbital space tourists Greg Olsen (in attendance) and Mark Shuttleworth (not in attendance.) Still, the list of awardees encompasses a large fraction of people who have made major achievements in space tourism to date. With so many big names getting awards, though, it makes one wonder who will be left to get an award next year…
[…] Eileen Borgeson, the artist who designed the giant trophy given to the Dennis Tito Award winners at the ORBIT Awards ceremony last month, announced this week that she has created an ORBIT Awards poster that is “Free to all Earth Citizens”. (Aliens, presumably, will have to pay some pricey interstellar shipping-and-handling charges.) We terrestrials can view the poster online. It lists the award winners as well as the major speakers at the International Space Development Conference: “Burt Rutan, Elon Musk, Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Gregory Olsen, Rusty Schweickart, Rick Searfoss, Shana Dale, Charles Elachi, Bill Nye, Gen. Pete Worden and Rep. Diane Rohrabacher.” Wait: Rep. Diane Rohrabacher? To the best of our knowledge, Dana Rohrabacher has not changed his name—or sex. […]