Award for Pyle’s Body of Work in Media, Including 20 Nonfiction Space Books, NASA Publications, Recording Space History, and Excellence in Space Journalism

On May 25, the National Space Society will give its prestigious Space Pioneer Award for Media to Rod Pyle, noted space book author and historian, writer of numerous NASA publications, space journalist and podcaster, and editor of the NSS “Ad Astra” magazine. The award will be presented at the society’s annual International Space Development Conference, being held this year in Los Angeles, California, from May 23-26.

“I could not be more pleased that Rod will be receiving this award,” said planetary scientist Dr. Pascal Lee, who will be presenting the award. “His books are all deeply researched, wonderfully insightful, and written with expert knowledge and passion. They are lasting treasures of space history and must-reads for modern space explorers.” Dr. Lee also received an NSS Space Pioneer Award for his work in planetary science and Mars exploration in 2023.

Pyle’s many book credits include “Space 2.0”, a look at the new space age, published by Ben Bella Books and NSS, with a foreword by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. In addition to being sold in the general marketplace, the book is used by multiple aerospace graduate schools as well as the U.S. Space Force and Air Force. He also authored “First on the Moon,” a 50th anniversary book about the Apollo program (also with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin), which became a national best seller. Other books include “Amazing Stories of the Space Age,” “Heroes of the Space Age,” “Missions to the Moon” (also a best seller), “Curiosity: The Inside Story of the Mars Rover,” and “Destination Mars.”

Pyle has written countless articles for Space.com, Popular Science, Wired, BBC’s Sky at Night, LiveScience.com, Caltech’s E&S Magazine, and other periodicals. He has also written and produced space documentaries for Discovery Communications and The History Channel, among others. Pyle is a frequent guest on The History Channel’s “The UnXplained: With William Shatner” and was recently featured in the U.K. show “Secrets of the Solar System.” He also co-hosts the popular “This Week in Space” podcast with Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik and is a frequent guest on radio stations worldwide.

Additional publications include “The Apollo Leadership Experience” for the NASA Johnson Space Center and The Conference Board, a C-suite education program; as well as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “Technology Highlights” annual report, which has won numerous awards for editorial content. Pyle is also the Editor-in-Chief of the National Space Society’s quarterly magazine “Ad Astra,” now sold in major bookstores across the U.S. and Canada. Pyle has a BA from the Art Center College of Design and a MA from Stanford University, and studied astronomy at UCLA.