NASA's Stardust Mission and Lockheed Martin's ATLAS Launch Vehicles F22 Raptor have been honored with the and Space Technology Program Excellence Award on November 14, 2006. Aviation Week had reviewed over 300 federal programs before selecting the two finalists for the award.

Aviation Week and Space Technology invited industry partners to participate in a one-day workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona which focused on specific best practices from program leaders in managing technological complexity, managing and mitigating risk, and developing organizational capability and controls. From a free-market approach to technology resource allocation to renewing people skills as a program matures, these leaders are developing one-of-a-kind approaches that produce one-of-a-kind results and leadership.

NASA-JPL's Stardust Project Manager, Tom Duxbury along with Stardust's Program Manager from Lockheed Martin Space System's, Joe Vellinga accepted the award on behalf of the mission and NASA.