[Letter from June 28, 2012...]

Dear NASA Kepler Mission Team,

On behalf of Space Frontier Foundation, I have the privilege of informing you that our Board of Directors has chosen you as this year’s recipient of the Vision to Reality Award.

The Vision to Reality Award is given for outstanding achievement in the development and operation of a device, system or entity that forwards the opening of the Space Frontier. The winners must actually have “pulled one off,” that is, they must have succeeded in reaching their goal. Good ideas, business plans or anything requiring “unobtainium” don’t count. Qualified achievements must have taken place within the 12 months prior to the call for nominations.

The Kepler Team has succeeded in this and so much more. In an age when NASA is accused over and over of spending too much for little results, you have proven that it IS ACTUALLY POSSIBLE to set a bold goal and surpass it on a relatively small budget.

To those of us at the Space Frontier Foundation, you are the model for what we hope all of NASA can be. You set out with an awe-inspiring mission to find habitable exoplanets, and you exceeded even your own high expectations. You even influenced pop culture when you proved that George Lucas’ Tatooine really exists and your finds were turned into an infographic on the online comic strip, XKCD. Without explicitly setting out to do it, your work has made NASA cool again, in large part because of your laudable attention to outreach and education. Our Board, who are all self-proclaimed space geeks, thanks you for that.

We want to hear your story in your own words. If you can make it, we would be honored if you could attend our conference's NewSpace Awards Gala, on the evening of July 28 in Silicon Valley, CA, so that we can present this well-deserved award to you. Details about the event can be found at NewSpace.SpaceFrontier.org/Gala.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact me ... at any time. I eagerly await your reply to this invitation.

Thank you very much for your time and for your work at NASA!

Sincerely,

Laura Stiles

NewSpace 2012 Awards Gala Manager

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