Latest NASA personnel Stories

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Suni Williams will announce Thursday the two winners of the YouTube Space Lab contest, a global science competition that challenges 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment for the International Space Station. The awards ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. EDT in the Newseum's Knight Room at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. in Washington. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Thousands...

NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck and Space Technology Program Director Michael Gazarik will visit CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC) of Huntsville, Ala., at 1 p.m. CST on Thursday, March 8. Media representatives are invited to join Peck, Gazarik and CFDRC's CEO Sangeeta Singhal during the one-hour tour of the company. Officials will be available to speak with reporters during the event at CFDRC corporate headquarters, located at 215 Wynn Drive in Huntsville. There also will be a photo...

HAMPTON, Va., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Is it a mature science or a future of endless possibilities? Have we reached our limits in research and design, or is it still possible to build a better airplane? (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) On Tuesday, March 6, at NASA's Langley Research Center here, Mark Lewis, former Chief Scientist of the Air Force will present, "Expanding the Envelope: Challenges and Opportunities in Aerospace...

GREENBELT, Md., March 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The public is invited to a free talk called "Penguins, Polar Bears, and Laser Beams from Space: NASA Science at the Poles," by NASA scientist Dr. Tom Neumann. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The talk is part of the Gerald Soffen Lecture Series and will be held at the Visitor's Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 7 p.m. EST (doors open at 6:45 p.m.). The talk...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA' s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld, has named former veteran NASA program manager Orlando Figueroa to lead a newly established Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) tasked to reformulate the agency's Mars Exploration Program. Figueroa's first assignment is to develop a draft framework for review by March 15. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Grunsfeld...

During a time of strict budget restraints, NASA still presses on by announcing the new Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) on Monday. NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld, named former NASA program manager Orlando Figueroa as the head of the new MPPG. Figueroa is tasked with the job to reformulate NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which has faced budget cuts from President Barack Obama's new proposal. Due to the new budget restraints, NASA...

NASA's Office of Education will join the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in hosting a Minority Males in STEM Symposium on Feb. 28. The day-long program will focus on ways to increase participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for students from under-represented racial and ethnic groups. U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) is the scheduled keynote speaker. Woodrow...

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Tuesday changes to his senior leadership team. Associate Administrator Chris Scolese was named director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Robert Lightfoot, director of the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will serve as acting associate administrator. Both will assume their new responsibilities on March 5. Scolese, who has been with NASA since 1987, succeeds Robert Strain, who announced his...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Tuesday changes to his senior leadership team. Associate Administrator Chris Scolese was named director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Robert Lightfoot, director of the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will serve as acting associate administrator. Both will assume their new responsibilities on March 5. (Logo -...

The Obama administration’s upcoming budget for NASA plans to cut $300 million out of the agency’s planetary science program, which could keep any planetary explorations, including Mars missions, grounded. If the budget proposal is adopted by Congress, it would most likely shelve NASA’s ability to participate in two upcoming Mars missions to be carried out in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). But even before any cuts have been unveiled, lawmakers are vowing to fight...