JPL Racks Up Emmy Nomination for Mission Coverage

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced July 16 two award nominations for NASA for its coverage of a Mars mission and the agency’s first test of a spacecraft that will help bring crewed launches to the International Space Station back to U.S. soil.

One nomination singled out Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The two NASA nominations for the 71st Emmy Awards were for:

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California

Outstanding Original Interactive Program for the agency’s coverage of its InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission to Mars, including news, web, education, television and social media efforts.

InSight is the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments. InSight is managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena. JPL won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for its coverage of the Cassini mission’s Grand Finale at Saturn.

NASA and SpaceX

Outstanding Interactive Program for multimedia coverage of Demonstration Mission 1, a test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station — the first human-rated spacecraft to lift off from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Demonstration Mission 1 was made possible by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is paving the way for commercial transport of astronauts to the space station while the agency looks forward to deep space missions to the Moon and Mars. The nomination is a result of years of preparation for the historic launch and multiple live broadcasts from NASA and SpaceX facilities across the country during each phase of the Crew Dragon’s mission to the International Space Station and its stunning return to Earth. Throughout NASA’s coverage, the agency and SpaceX engaged social media users around the world and at local social media influencer gatherings at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Interactive programming is part of the Creative Arts Emmys, which will be awarded at ceremonies set for Sept. 14 and 15 at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. An edited version of the two ceremonies will air on FXX Sept. 21. Selected Creative Arts Emmys will be shown as part of the live 71st Primetime Emmys broadcast on Sept. 22, which will air on Fox at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. EDT).