The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given annually since 2005 in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. The awards are presented by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, although the selection is delegated to the British Interplanetary Society, with the exception of the International award, whose recipient is voted on by the Foundation Nominations for the awards are made by members of the public, with shortlists drawn up by a panel of judges, who also choose the winner. Sir Arthur C. Clarke chose a special award independently of the public nominations.
Founded in 2005, the idea for the awards was proposed by Dave Wright to Jerry Stone, who then suggested they be named after Sir Arthur Clarke. Once permission was granted, Jerry Stone decided what the awards should look like, what categories should be included, and how they should be nominated and judged.
Having obtained Sir Arthur's permission for the awards to bear his name, Jerry Stone decided that the awards should have the same proportions (1:4:9) as the monolith featured in Clarke's ', and be made of glass, as the description on the book of 2001 describes 'a crystalline monolith'. This represents Clarke's science fiction work. The award features the diagram Clarke drew in 1945 in order to demonstrate how satellites can provide global communications around the Earth from geostationary orbit, also called the Clarke Orbit. This represents Clarke's science work. It was co-designed by Howard Berry, who suggested the font and lettering style.
Initially the awards were presented at the UK Space Conference (the British Rocketry Oral History Programme until it was renamed in 2008) which was held annually at Charterhouse School, Surrey, from 1998 to 2010. The association with the conference continues but only in alternate years, as the conference has been bi-annual since 2011.
Not all categories are awarded each year; for example, 2008 was the first year in which nominations were shortlisted in the category of Best Film Presentation. An additional award was given in 2007 and 2008 that was named after and presented by George Abbey, the former director of the Johnson Space Center. It was awarded to those "whose space achievement made us laugh the most".
The award ceremony is similar to the Oscars in that multiple awards are given in various categories at the same event, which is different from other awards given in the field. As a result, the awards have been referred to as the Arthurs. The awards are held in high regard by the international Space community: Due to COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom, in 2020-21 the Awards could not be run in 2020. Subsequent editions have all been presented the following year, both for consistency and to allow "a full calendar year for achievements to be completed and contributions made".
The 2023 awards were conferred on 12 November 2024 at the British Interplanetary Society's Reinventing Space conference at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. The judges agreed to return to the pre-COVID system where achievements had to be completed between one award ceremony and the next. To realign the award calendar, nominations were for achievements and contributions in the 2023 calendar year through to September 2024, i.e. 21 months, allowing a return to the pre-COVID 12-month cycle in 2025.
The 2022 awards were conferred on 13 October 2023 at The Spine in Liverpool, at the conclusion of the Reinventing Space Conference and as part of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the society in Liverpool.
The 2021 awards were presented at the Reinventing Space Conference on 30 November 2022 at Bristol Aerospace, in Bristol.
The 2020 awards were presented at the Reinventing Space Conference Gala Dinner on Tuesday 29 June 2021, which was delayed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2019 awards were presented at the Reinventing Space Conference Gala Dinner on Thursday 14 November
The 2018 awards were presented at a gala dinner at the 2018 Reinventing Space Conference at The Royal Aeronautical Society on Thursday 1 November 2018. The finalists were announced on the BIS website on 7 October.
The 2017 awards were presented at a gala dinner at the 2017 UK Space Conference, held at Manchester Central on Wednesday 31 May 2017.
The 2016 awards were presented at a gala dinner at the 2016 Reinventing Space Conference at The Royal Society on Thursday 27 October 2016. The event was sponsored by the UK Space Agency.
The 2015 awards were presented at the UK Space Conference Dinner in St George's Hall, Liverpool on Tuesday 14 July 2015. They were sponsored by the UK Space Agency.
The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards 2014 were presented at an event at The Royal Aeronautical Society on Wednesday 8 October 2014, by the Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, Dr. David Parker.
The specific ESA/Industry Rosetta team members who received the "Space Achievement - Industry/Project Team" award:
The 2013 awards were presented at the UK Space Conference at the Glasgow Science Centre, at a black tie dinner on 16 July hosted by Helen Keen. Tim Peake, the UK's ESA astronaut presented the awards to the recipients.
As the UK Space Agency are only planning to run the space conference in alternate years, the 2012 awards were presented at a special event in the Cholmondeley Room at the House of Lords on 26 October 2012. The host was Lord Cobbold and the MC for the event was the impressionist Jon Culshaw.
The 2011 award took place at the UK Space Conference at the University of Warwick in July 2011.
The award dinner was held on 27 March 2010 at the UK Space Conference at Charterhouse.
The 2009 Awards dinner was held on 4 April 2009 at the UK Space conference.
The 2008 Awards dinner was held on 29 March 2008 at Charterhouse. Special guests were George Abbey and Joe Engle.
The 2007 Awards dinner was held on 14 April 2007 at the BROHP conference at Charterhouse.
Among the other nominees were Anousheh Ansari, and the British-born astronaut Piers Sellers.
The 2006 Awards dinner was held on 8 April 2006 at the BROHP conference at Charterhouse.
Among the other nominees were Sir Richard Branson, and the Robson Green drama television series Rocket Man.
Presented at the inaugural awards dinner at Charterhouse, Saturday 2 April 2005.
Sir Arthur was also presented with a special award commemorating the 60th anniversary of his paper on global communication by satellite in the October 1945 edition of Wireless World. This award was accepted on behalf of Sir Arthur by his brother Fred.