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By European Space Agency
Space startups and SMEs can meet ESA’s SME Office at Space Tech Expo, a space technology trade fair and conference in Bremen, Germany from 19–21 November.
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By European Space Agency
The 2025 ESA internship opportunities are now live! Positions are open in a wide range of fields, including engineering, science, IT, natural and social sciences, business, economics, and administrative services. This is your chance to launch your career in the extraordinary world of space exploration—don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to gain hands-on experience with one of the world’s leading space organisations!
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Kathy Clark (left) and Ryan D. Brown have both served as chairs of NASA Glenn Research Center’s Disability Awareness Advisory Group, which works to help provide individuals with disabilities equal opportunities in all aspects of employment.Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Kathy Clark started her career at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland straight out of high school, and when offered either a job as an accountant or a job in training, the choice was crystal clear.
“I started in training, I’ve stayed in training, and I’ll probably retire in training,” said Clark, now a human resources specialist and program manager of NASA Glenn’s mentoring program, Shaping Professionals and Relating Knowledge (SPARK). “I just love people.”
Celebrating 41 years at NASA this October, Clark has long been an advocate for employees. For over 12 years, she served as chair of the center’s Disability Awareness Advisory Group (DAAG), which works to help provide individuals with disabilities equal opportunities in all aspects of employment. The group also strives to identify and eliminate workplace barriers, raise awareness, and ensure accessible facilities.
After recently stepping down, Clark reflects on her legacy of creating change with the group and looks to the next generation of leadership, including longtime member and new chair Ryan D. Brown, to continue its important mission.
“Don’t Let a Disability Stop You”
Clark joined DAAG around 12 years into her career, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was later asked to serve as chair after she helped bring a traveling mural to the center that showcased Ohio artists with disabilities.
During Clark’s time as chair, the group helped secure reserved parking spaces for employees with disabilities, instead of just relying on a first-come first-serve system for accessible spots. She recalls DAAG championing other facility issues, such as fixing a broken elevator and faulty door that presented challenges for folks with disabilities. The group has also worked with human resources to compile best practices for interviews, hosted various speakers, and offered a space for members to share about their disabilities.
“I was honored to be the chair and just be there for the people and to try to make a difference, to let them know, if you need something, reach out,” Clark said. “Don’t let a disability stop you.”
“I was honored to be the chair and just be there for the people and to try to make a difference, to let them know, if you need something, reach out."
Kathy clark
“Let’s Go Above and Beyond”
When it was time to choose Clark’s successor, she said, another supportive and vocal member stood out: Brown.
Thanks to an Ohio program for individuals with disabilities, Brown was placed at NASA as an intern in 2006, later completing a co-op that led to a full-time accounting position at the center, where he now works as a lead in the financial systems branch.
More than one in four adults in the United States have some type of disability, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some are not always easy to see, Brown says. For instance, Brown has an invisible disability: a learning disability related to reading and writing. After connecting with a coworker early in his career who was a member of DAAG, Brown reached out to Clark to join.
“Everyone has their challenges, regardless of if you have a disability or not, so making people comfortable talking about it and bringing it up is always good,” he said. “I think I’ve always liked speaking up for individuals and trying to spread that awareness, which has been great with DAAG.”
Now the chair, Brown has supported the group in developing a job aid to help employees understand how to self-identify as having a disability. They’ve also recently organized awareness events to help other employees understand the experiences and challenges of individuals with disabilities.
DAAG also continues to champion facility updates. For example, the group is currently working to get automatic door openers installed for bathrooms in buildings at the center where many employees gather.
“Let’s try to go above and beyond and really make it easier on individuals,” Brown said.
“Let’s try to go above and beyond and really make it easier on individuals."
ryan D. brown
“Make a Difference”
Membership in the group is growing, and Clark looks forward to its future.
“I could not have turned over the chair role to a better person than Ryan,” she said.
Brown’s vision is to continue spreading the word that the group is available as a resource for employees, and for others throughout the center to be more aware of the experiences of individuals with disabilities. The work he does to help others inspires him every day, he says.
“We’re here for individuals that don’t want to speak up, we’re here for individuals if they run into issues – they can always contact us,” Brown said. “It’s all about getting up there and trying to make a difference.”
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By European Space Agency
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By NASA
NASA logo NASA has awarded $15.6 million in grant funding to 15 projects supporting the maintenance of open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries used by the NASA science community, for the benefit of all.
The agency’s Open-Source Tools, Frameworks, and Libraries awards provide support for the sustainable development of tools freely available to everyone and critical for the goals of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
“We received almost twice the number of proposals this year than we had in the previous call,” said Steve Crawford, program executive, Open Science implementation, Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The NASA science community’s excitement for this program demonstrates the need for sustained support and maintenance of open-source software. These projects are integral to our missions, critical to our data infrastructure, underpin machine learning and data science tools, and are used by our researchers, every day, to advance science that protects our planet and broadens our understanding of the universe.”
This award program is one of several cross-divisional opportunities at NASA focused on advancing open science practices. The grants are funded by NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer through the agency’s Research Opportunities for Space and Earth Science. The solicitation sought proposals through two types of awards:
Foundational awards: cooperative agreements for up to five years for open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries that have a significant impact on two or more divisions of the Science Mission Directorate. Sustainment awards: grants or cooperative agreements of up to three years for open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries that have significant impact in one or more divisions of the Science Mission Directorate. 2024 awardees are:
Foundation awards:
NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Ross Beyer “Expanding and Maintaining the Ames Stereo Pipeline” Caltech, Pasadena, CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Brigitta Sipocz “Enhancement of Infrastructure and Sustained Maintenance of Astroquery” Cornell University, Scarsdale, New YorkPrincipal investigator: Ramin Zabih “Modernize and Expand arXiv’s Essential Infrastructure” NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MarylandPrincipal investigator: D. Cooley “Enabling SMD Science Using the General Mission Analysis Tool” NumFOCUS, Austin, TexasPrincipal investigator: Thomas Caswell “Sustainment of Matplotlib and Cartopy” NumFOCUSPrincipal investigator: Erik Tollerud “Investing in the Astropy Project to Enable Research and Education in Astronomy” Sustainment awards:
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Cedric David “Sustain NASA’s River Software for the Satellite Data Deluge,” three-year award Pennsylvania State University, University ParkPrincipal investigator: David Radice “AthenaK: A Performance Portable Simulation Infrastructure for Computational Astrophysics,” three-year award United States Geological Survey, Reston, VirginiaPrincipal investigator: Trent Hare “Planetary Updates for QGIS,” one-year award NASA JPLPrincipal investigator: Michael Starch “How To F Prime: Empowering Science Missions Through Documentation and Examples,” three-year award NASA GoddardPrincipal investigator: Albert Shih “Enhancing Consistency and Discoverability Across the SunPy Ecosystem,” three-year award Triad National Security, LLC, Los Alamos, New MexicoPrincipal investigator: Julia Kelliher “Enhancing Analysis Capabilities of Biological Data With the NASA EDGE Bioinformatics Platform,” four-year award iSciences LLC, Burlington, VermontPrincipal investigator: Daniel Baston “Sustaining the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library,” three-year award University of Maryland, College Park,Principal investigator: C Max Stevens “Sustaining the Community Firn Model,” three-year award Quansight, LLC, Austin, TexasPrincipal investigator: Dharhas Pothina “Ensuring a Fast and Secure Core for Scientific Python – Security, Accessibility and Performance of NumPy, SciPy and scikit-learn; Going Beyond NumPy With Accelerator Support,” three-year award For information about open science at NASA, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/open-science
-end-
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
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