The SSPI Hall of Fame, initiated in 1987, recognizes the invaluable contributions of the visionaries and pioneers who have made possible the age of satellite communications. Honoring individuals who, throughout their careers, have made a truly unique and significant contribution to the industry, the Hall of Fame salutes a lifetime of achievement in advancing science and technology or in helping to build the political and commercial foundations of the industry. 11th Induction - 2009 SSPI inducted five new members into its Satellite Hall of Fame at an invitation-only ceremony on March 25, 2009, sponsored by Booz & Co.: 
| Dr. Denis Curtin, Chief Operating Officer, XTAR, for his influence on the industry over a four-decade career, including solar cell/solar array development at COMSAT Laboratories, head of engineering responsible for design, building and operation of the Loral Orion satellites, and subsequently chief operating officer of XTAR, the first commercial X-Band satellite system. | | |  | Mary Frost, for a distinguished career as head of operations for ABC, as president of GlobeCast America, one of the most innovative organizations in the industry, and in volunteer leadership positions with numerous industry trade groups. | | |  | Peter Jackson, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Satellite Telecommunications, for three decades of executive leadership with British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, and as Chief Executive Officer of Asiasat since 1993, which he has grown into a diversified, publicly-traded satellite fleet operator. | | |  | Pradman Kaul, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Hughes Network Systems, for both business and technology leadership in a long career with Hughes, which included development of the TDMA satellite communications system, VSAT technology, digital set-top boxes and the Internet Protocol over Satellite standard. | | |  | D.K. Sachdev, President, SpaceTel Consultancy, for a professional career devoted to innovation in satellite, first with an Indian manufacturer of earth stations, then with Intelsat and Worldspace, and finally as a professor of engineering at George Mason University. |
Tenth Induction - 2007  | Robert Berry, Chairman of Space Systems/Loral, for leadership in providing three generations of satellites to Intelsat, the US Department of Defense and other customers and introducing key direct broadcast, mobile and other satellite technologies. | | |  | Laurier Boisvert, President and CEO (retired) of Telesat Canada, for the transformation of Telesat Canada from an unprofitable national service provider into a vibrant international competitor in satellite services and pioneer in commercializing the Ka frequency band. | | |  | Mary Ann Elliott, Chairman and CEO of Arrowhead Global Communications, for entrepreneurship in the founding of Arrowhead Global and its growth into a major provider of end-to-end communications solutions to the U.S. Federal government. | | |  | Dr. Yasuo Hirata, Chairman of KDDI R&D Laboratories, for major contributions to the development of digital mobile satellite communications systems and technologies, including the INMARSAT Standard-B system and "punctured” forward error correction techniques. | | |  | Conny Kullman, Chairman (retired) of Intelsat, for leadership of Intelsat through its transformation from an intergovernmental organization into a privately-held operator of terrestrial networks and the world's largest commercial satellite fleet. | | |  | Dr. Delbert Smith, Senior Telecommunications Counsel, Jones Day, for his instrumental role in the recovery of the Palapa B2 and Westar VI satellites, which greatly strengthened the satellite insurance industry, and for originating the first satellite communications publication and conference. | | |
Ninth Induction - 2005 |
 | William "Mac" Evans, Former President of the Canadian Space Agency, recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and the Outstanding Achievement Award for Public Service in Canada. | | |  | David E. Hershberg, Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Globecomm Systems Inc. | | |  | Dr. Takashi Iida, Executive Director of the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA), former President of Communications Research Lab (CRL) of Japan (now National Institute for Information and Communications Technology), General Chairman of the AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference 21 in Yokohama, Japan. | | |  | Peter Marshall, Former CEO and General Manager of Visnews, Former President of Keystone Communications, First SSPI Vice President for International Liaison, and Former SSPI President, Fellow of Britain’s Royal Television Society and founder of the North American Chapter of the same. |
Seventh Induction - 2001 - Robert D. Briskman, An early leading engineer of the Comsat Corporation who was the technical designer and one of the founders of the Sirius Satellite audio broadcasting system.
- Professor Kazuhiro Miyauchi, One of the leading professors of Japan in the field of digital communications satellites.
- Dr. Joseph N. Pelton, Founding president of SSPI, founder of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, former Dean of the International Space University and author of many books on satellite communications.
- Noah A. Samara, Founder of the Worldspace Satellite Network and pioneer in obtaining frequencies for direct audio broadcasting via satellite.
- Robert N. Wold, Founder of Wold Communications, one of the early consolidators of broadcast video traffic via satellite, which evolved through mergers into what is now GlobeCast America.
Sixth Induction - 1999 - John A. Johnoson, One of the authors of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 and First Chairman of the initial oversight committee of Intelsat.
- Takuro Muratani, Top engineer of KDD who undertook leading work in digital coding and especially in digital mobile satellite engineering.
- John G. Puente, Founder of Digital Communications Corporation that led in the development of TDMA and digital satellite systems that eventually became Hughes Network Systems.
Fifth Induction - 1997 - Dr. Burton I. Edelson, Associate Administrator of NASA responsible for the ACTS Satellite, the Hubble Telescope, the Galileo Mission to Jupiter, and the Explorer Mission that confirmed the "Big Bang."
- Olof Lundberg, The Founding Director General of Inmarsat.
- Dr. Ken-Ichi Miya, Top engineer of KDD Labs, Intelsat Technical Committee Chair and author of a major text on satellite communications.
- Dr. William Pritchard, First Director of Comsat Labs, designer of some of the world’s first defense communications satellite systems and author in the field. He was also the first Chairman of the SSPI International Advisory Council and a Founding member of the SSPI.
Fourth Induction - 1993 - Rene Anselmo, The founder of the PanAmSat System that became the first serious international competitor to Intelsat.
- Stanley Hubbard, The CEO and intellectual leader of the Hubbard Broadcast Company, who led development of one of the first direct broadcast satellite systems to be deployed in North America.
- Sidney Metzger, The chief scientist of the Comsat Corporation, who led efforts to define the characteristics of the early Intelsat satellites and the Standard A and B earth stations.
- Tadahiro Sekimoto, The chief scientist of the Comsat Corporation, who led efforts to define the characteristics of the early Intelsat satellites and the Standard A and B earth stations.
Third Induction - 1991 - Dr. Joseph V. Charyk, The first President and then Chairman of the Board of Comsat. Comsat managed the interim Intelsat system as well as deployed Marisat satellite and owned and operated US domestic satellites.
- Frederic d’Allest, The top executive of Arianespace who oversaw the development and successful launch of the first Ariane vehicles.
- Sidney Topol, The very long-time leader of Scientific Atlanta whose company built many of the original Standard A Intelsat earth stations plus many of the earth station for many domestic satellite networks.
Second Induction - 1989 - Santiago Astrain, The first Secretary General of Intelsat as well as the first Director General of the Intelsat system, who led the organization for over 10 years.
- Andrea Caruso, One of key leaders at the dawn of the communications satellite era for both Telespazio and Intelsat, who went on to become the founding Director General of Eutelsat.
- Leonard Jaffe, The top scientist and NAS engineer who designed and oversaw the deployment of NASA’s Applications Test Satellite (ATS) series from ATS-1 to -6 as well as the Communications Technology Satellite CTS.
- Koji Kobayashi, The long-time CEO and Chairman of the NEC Corporation of Japan, who made famous the concept of an integrated C & C (Computers and Communications) enterprise.
First Induction - 1987 - Arthur C. Clarke, Conceiver of the geosynchronous communications satellite in his famous 1945 Wireless World article, and author of 2001: the Space Odyssey and numerous works of science fact and fiction.
- <Dr.William H. Pickering, Former head of JPL who, with James Van Allen, designed the Explorer 1 satellite that discovered the Van Allen Belt.
- Dr. John R. Pierce, The Bell Labs scientist and engineer who led development of the Echo and Telstar communications satellites from which the communications satellite industry sprang.
- Dr. Harold Rosen, The Hughes Aircraft designer and lead engineer of the first geostationary communications satellite, Syncom III, as well as Early Bird and dozens of the earliest communications satellites.
- Adolph K. Thiel, an Austrian-born German expert in guided missiles on Wernher von Braun's teams in Germany and the USA, who supervised design of the Redstone and Thor rockets and was director of space projects when TRW developed the Explorer VI and Pioneer V robot spacecraft.
- Dr. James A. Van Allen, Professor at Astrophysics who designed Explorer 1, America's first successful satellite, that discovered the Van Allen belts.
- COSPAS/SARSAT, In the only Hall of Fame award to an organization rather than an individual, recognizing the hundreds of people around the world who developed, deployed and operated both the COSPAS and SARSAT satellite networks to carry out worldwide search and rescue operations for pilots and people lost at sea or in hazardous terrain.
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