Voting for the SpaceNews Awards for Excellence & Innovation is now open at SpaceNews.com. The awards honor excellence and innovation among space professionals, companies, programs and organizations.

International Launch Services (ILS) is a finalist in two categories: Corporate Leader of the Year – ILS President Kirk Pysher, and Turnaround of the Year – ILS.

A look at each category:

• Corporate Leader of the Year – ILS President Kirk Pysher
  Pysher was appointed President of ILS in 2015 and was charged with turning the company around and introducing new products in a difficult environment. Under Pysher’s leadership, ILS bounced back from near-dormancy to conduct three on-time, successful commercial Proton launches in 2017: EchoStar 21 on June 7; Amazonas 5 on September 11; and AsiaSat9 on September 28. Notably, ILS also secured two multi-launch agreements with Eutelsat and Intelsat, and the first Angara 1.2 contract after Pysher took the helm at ILS.

• Turnaround of the Year – International Launch Services
  Proton has achieved 12 consecutive successful launches including three Proton missions in six weeks culminating with the September 28 launch of AsiaSat 9. This turnaround was conducted after a challenging period to include a Proton engine recall to ensure and implement stringent quality control at Khrunichev.  In the midst of these challenges, ILS introduced new product developments to exclusively serve the commercial satellite industry: the two-stage Proton Medium and Light vehicles. In the fall of 2016, ILS contracted with Eutelsat, for the first two-stage Proton Medium and its first fully commercial shared launch with the Eutelsat 5 West B satellite and Orbital ATK’s MEV-1 spacecraft.

SpaceNews readers will vote on finalists from November 10 through November 17 via SpaceNews.com. Winners will be announced online on December 18 and also in the December 18 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

The link to the awards program:
http://spacenews.com/time-to-vote-on-the-finalists-for-the-spacenews-awards-for-excellence-innovation/

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