The SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team was honored with the first-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night (Sept. 15). The award was announced earlier in April but was presented during the event at the Cosmos Club. Created by Purdue University, the international prize is named after Neil Armstrong, a Purdue alumnus and the first person to walk on the moon. Purdue is often called the "cradle of astronauts," as 30 of its graduates have flown in space or been selected as NASA astronauts. Mark Lundstrom, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering at Purdue, said in a statement that Neil Armstrong's historic moon landing was made possible by remarkable engineering, teamwork, and a willingness to take on the impossible. He praised the Falcon 9 team for continuing that legacy by making rocket reuse practical on a large scale. This innovation has significantly reduced the cost of spaceflight and opened up new opportunities for scientific research, exploration, and commercial ventures. The five honorees — Lars Blackmore, Shana Diez, Jon Edwards, Yoshiaki Kuwata, and Eduardo Velazquez — represent the broader team responsible for the Falcon 9's successful landings. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket was first launched in June 2010, with a reusable first stage always part of its design. However, turning that vision into reality took much longer than expected. Kuwata, who joined SpaceX in 2012, noted that while a rough calculation suggested the project might take six months, it actually required three to four years of effort. The first successful landing of the Falcon 9's first stage occurred on Dec. 21, 2015, when it touched down vertically at Cape Canaveral after delivering 11 satellites to orbit. Another milestone came on April 8, 2016, with a landing on a floating platform known as a "drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean. These achievements are now routine, with more than 650 successful landings recorded in orbital missions. Some Falcon 9 first stages have been reused more than 30 times, with one particular booster having flown 37 missions. The Falcon 9's success has made it the most frequently used rocket in space today. In 2025, it completed 165 missions — about half of all global rocket launches — and all were successful. This success has inspired other space agencies and companies, including two Chinese rockets that have achieved successful landings in recent months. SpaceX is now shifting its focus to Starship, a fully reusable rocket designed for deep space missions, including settling on the moon and Mars. Starship has completed 13 test flights, all suborbital, and its first stage, the Super Heavy, has been successfully recovered three times. The team is working on achieving full reusability of the second stage, which would be a major leap forward for space travel.