The ILEWG Awards celebrate the top lunar achievements in science, technology, international cooperation, community service, commerce and outreach. The Lunex YLE Award is given to an entity promoting lunar exploration among young lunar explorers.

The awards were given to the following recipients:

• The ILEWG Science Award is given to JAXA Kaguya science team, for the successful science exploitation of the Kaguya mission after one year of operations, with the publication of unprecedented maps of lunar gravity, topography, surface chemistry and multi-band high resolution images.
• The ILEWG Technology Award is given to NASA Constellation and LRO/LCROSS teams, for the development of advanced technologies within hard constraints of short time and cost, for the Constellations programme (Orion crew vehicle, Ares Launch vehicle, Altair Lunar Lander), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
• The ILEWG International Cooperation Award is given to the ISRO Chandrayaan-1 team, for the challenging accommodation and tests of the most international lunar payload ever (from 20 countries: India, ESA European Space Agency representing 17 European countries, NASA, Bulgaria), with a successful launch of the probe on the PSLV on 22 October 2008 and the upcoming lunar insertion on 8 November.
• The ILEWG Community Service Award is given to Dr Clive Neal, lunar scientist from Notre-Dame University, for his services to the community, Lunar List register, and leadership of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG).
• The ILEWG Commerce Award & Outreach Award are given to the Google Lunar X Prize, for initiating the challenge of a commercial robotic race to the Moon to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives. It will inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. It has generated a huge interest for the Moon and space exploration in the public and the media.
• The Young Lunar Explorers Award 2008 was given to Google Lunar X Prize, because of the wide reaching effect the GLXP has had on promoting lunar exploration among young people around the world. Several GLXP teams are run by students or have strong student participation, and the general outreach caused by the announcement of the prize has ignited a world wide desire among young people to be a part of the return to the Moon.

Congratulations to the winning teams, and especially the Google Lunar X Prize for the tremendous impact it has had on promoting both private and student lunar exploration initiatives!