Elon Musk has often landed in the soup for his tweets. Well, not this time. The SpaceX CEO has been selected as a winner of the 2019 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, one of the most prestigious honors of its kind.
Musk has been selected for the award for his achievements in the field of space travel as well as his regular updates on the progress of his rocket architecture through social media. The award comes on the heels of the second consecutive successful flight of SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon Heavy rocket, which will someday be hopefully used to carry humans to space.
During the first Falcon Heavy flight in February last year, a Tesla Roadster was used as the dummy payload, which invited criticism from space activists for increasing space debris.
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The award, which is presented by STARMUS, is given to individuals or groups who promote and popularize scientific advancements through mass media. Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking personally used to select the winners, and this will be the first time the award is being presented after his death.
Prior winners include astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who hosted the TV show Cosmos; Hans Zimmer, who has composed music for the film Interstellar; and the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
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Other winners of this year’s award are musician Brian Eno and Apollo 11, a documentary by Todd Douglas Miller, for its breakthrough look at history’s most famous space mission.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TESLA), has previously locked horns with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, for his “misleading” tweets about his company. He was also later forced to step down as the Chairman of the company.
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