Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Awards

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Booklet: History of the Emme Awards from 1983-2013

The annual Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Awards, named for NASA’s first Historian, recognize outstanding books that advance public understanding of astronautics.  They reward 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 any of a number of 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 may also cover related subjects such as astronomy and cosmology, as well as the occasional non-astronautics title that has a space “flavor.”

Two additional awards known as Emme Juniors were added in 2009 for books written specifically for children (K-5) and young adults (6-12). They recognize efforts to inspire and educate today’s students (and future leaders) through publications aimed at K-12 students.

A review panel of the AAS History Committee selects the award recipients. The Emme Award cycle is as follows:

  • Apr – AAS History Committee invites publishers to submit titles for consideration
  • May – Deadline for receipt of review copies
  • May-Aug – Review panel reads titles submitted for consideration and convenes to discuss
  • Sep – Review panel informs AAS Office of titles chosen to receive awards, as well as the list of finalists.  AAS Office informs recipients and their publishers, and prepares press release announcing the award selections.

A publisher may nominate or the author can self-nominate by submitting four (4) copies of their book to the judging committee. Please email aas@astronautical.org to request the addresses of the judging committee.

Award Recipients:

  • 2024- Lunar, A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter edited by Matthew Shindell

Picture courtesy of The University of Chicago Press

  • 2023- Space Shuttle Stories: Firsthand Astronaut Accounts from All 135 Missions by Tom Jones

 

Picture courtesy of Smithsonian Books

  • 2022- Beyond Sputnik and the Space Race by Hugh R. Slotten
    Special Recognition: Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders

Picture courtesy of Hopkins Press

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2021- The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster by Kevin Cook

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

 

  • 2020- Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo by Teasel Muir-Harmony

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2019-
    • NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement (University Press Florida) by Brian C. Odom and Stephen R. Waring

 

Picture courtesy of The Florida Bookshelf

    •   Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight (Hill and Wang) by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Picture courtesy of Open Letters Review

  • 2018- Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier (Palgrave) by John Logsdon

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2017- Apollo in the Age of Aquarius (Harvard University Press) by Neil M. Maher

Picture courtesy of Harvard University Press

  • 2016- How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight (Penguin Press) by Julian Guthrie

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2015- German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie – Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era (Yale University Press) by Monique Laney

Picture courtesy of Yale University Press

  • 2014- Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission (National Geographic) by Marc Kaufman

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2013- Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration (Princeton University Press) by Chris Impey and Holly Henry

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2012
    • The Visioneers: How A Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University Press) by W. Patrick McCray

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • Destined for Space: Our Story of Exploration (Smithsonian Books and Capstone) by Don Nardo (Children’s Category)

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • Spacesuit: A History of Fact and Fiction (Casemate Publishers) by Brett Goodin (Young Adult Category)

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2011
    • Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo (The MIT Press) by Nicholas de Monchaux

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • The Scientists Behind Space (Heinemann Raintree, an imprint of Capstone) by Eve Hartman (Children’s Category)
  • Picture courtesy of Amazon.com
    • Man on the Moon: How a Photograph Made Anything Seem Possible (Compass Point, an imprint of Capstone) by Pamela Dell (Young Adult Category)

Picture courtesy of Capstone Publishing

  • 2010
    • John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Macmillan) by John M. Logsdon

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 (Cambridge University Press) by Asif A. Siddiqi

    • Eight Great Planets! (Picture Window Books) by Laura Purdie Salas (Children’s Category)

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • This is Rocket Science: True Stories of the Risk-taking Scientists who Figure Out Ways to Explore Beyond Earth (National Geographic Children’s Books) by Gloria Skurzynski (Young Adult Category)

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2009
    • Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft (University of Nebraska Press) by Jay Gallentine

 

Picture courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press

    • If I Were an Astronaut (Picture Window Books) by Eric Braun (Children’s Category)
  • Picture courtesy of Amazon.com
    • Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts) by Brian Fies (Young Adult Category)

 

Picture courtesy of Abrams Books

  • 2008 – Digital Apollo – Human and Machines in Spaceflight (The MIT Press) by David A. Mindell

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2007 – Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Knopf) by Michael J. Neufeld

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2006
    • Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, 1976-2004 (Yale University Press) by Peter J. Westwick

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

    • Honorable Mention: Testing the Limits – Aviation Medicine and the Origins of Manned Space Flight (Texas A&M Press) by Maura Mackowski

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  • 2005 – First Man – The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (Simon & Schuster) by James R. Hansen

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  • 2004 – Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program (The Johns Hopkins University Press) by Margaret Weitekamp

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2003 – Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interpanetary Travel (Joseph Henry Press) by Robert Zimmerman

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2002 – The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (The Johns Hopkins University Press) by Stephen B. Johnson

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 2001 – Moon Lander – How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module (Smithsonian Institution Press) by Thomas J. Kelly

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  • 2000 – Challenge to Apollo – The Soviet Union and the Space Race 1945 – 1974 (NASA) by Asif A. Siddiqi

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 1999 – America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security (University Press of Kansas) by Jeffrey T. Richelson

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 1998 – This New Ocean – The Story of the First Space Age (Random House) by William E. Burrows

 

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  • 1997 – Space and the American Imagination (Smithsonian Institution Press) by Howard E. McCurdy

Picture courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum

  • 1996 – Blind Watchers of the Sky – The People and Ideas that Shaped Our View of the Universe (Addison-Wesley) by Rocky Kolb

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 1995 – Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center from Sputnik to Apollo (NASA) by James R. Hansen

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  • 1994 – International Cooperation in Space: The Example of the European Space Agency (Harvard University Press) by Roger M. Bonnet and Vittorio Manno

Picture courtesy of Harvard University Press

  • 1993 – The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower’s Response to the Soviet Satellite (Oxford University Press) by Robert A. Divine

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 1992 – Blueprint for Space: From Science Fiction to Science Fact (Smithsonian Institution Press) by Frederick I. Ordway and Randy Liebermann

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  • 1991 – Exploring the Sun: Solar Science Since Galileo (The Johns Hopkins University Press) by Karl Hufbauer

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  • 1990 – The Home Planet (Addison-Wesley) by Kevin W. Kelley

Picture courtesy of Flickr

  • 1989 – Journey Into Space: The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration by (W.W. Norton & Company) by Bruce C. Murray

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  • 1988 – No Award Given
  • 1987 – Before Lift Off (The Johns Hopkins University Press) by Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr.

Picture courtesy of AbeBooks

  • 1986 – Pioneering the Space Frontier Report of the National Commission on Space (Bantam Books)

Picture courtesy of Internet Archive

  • 1985 – Beachheads in Space (Scribner) by Jerry Grey

 

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

  • 1984 – 2010: Odyssey Two (Del Rey) by Arthur C. Clarke

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  • 1983 – Global Talk (Sijthoff & Noordhoff) by Joseph N. Pelton

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