The National Space Society has named Jeff Bezos its 2018 recipient of the prestigious Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award for Space Settlement Advocacy to be awarded at the Society’s yearly conference in May 2018.

Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon, as well as the founder of newspace company Blue Origin. He funnels $1 billion of his own funds into Blue Origin each year and is developing two major rocket and spacecraft systems, as well as large and innovative rocket engines that utilize highly efficient fuels with advanced technologies.

The award will be presented to Mr. Bezos on Friday, May 25 at NSS’ 37th annual International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®) in Los Angeles. The Conference runs from May 24-27 and features leaders from space science, engineering, advocacy and government fields who are developing new ways to develop, live and prosper in space and on other worlds.

The Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award is given at infrequent intervals to exceptional individuals and has in the past recognized such leaders in space exploration and development as physicist Freeman Dyson and Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist Harrison Schmitt. The granting of the award to Mr. Bezos continues this tradition of recognizing exemplary achievement.

The public is invited to attend the awards presentation. For more information, see: isdc2018.nss.org.