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By Space Force
The Space Force senior leader highlighted the ever-changing landscape of developing partnerships in the space domain.
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By NASA
Oct. 1, 2024
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada holds a roll-out solar array as he rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk in support of the Expedition 68 mission aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 3, 2022. Credit: NASA Three-time Spacewalker Josh Cassada to Retire from NASA
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada retired Oct. 1, after 11 years of service to the agency across multiple programs, including 157 days in space and three spacewalks. Cassada also is a retired United States Navy captain and naval aviator with more than two decades of service.
Cassada served as pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission and Expedition 68 flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, executing myriad maintenance, contingency, and upgrade activities inside the station while also contributing to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations. His three spacewalks outside of the orbiting laboratory totaled more than 21 hours, successfully installing a pair of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs) to boost the station’s electrical capacity. Cassada, alongside crewmate NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, also assembled the infrastructure for a future IROSA installation and fully restored a malfunctioning legacy solar array.
“I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Josh for his dedication and service to human space exploration,” said NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche. “Josh’s contributions and achievements to the advancement of science and exploration will inspire the next generation of explorers, the Artemis generation, and benefit humanity for decades to come.”
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada poses for a portrait in his extravehicular mobility unit spacesuit on August 8, 2022. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz Throughout Expedition 68, Cassada and his crewmates completed extensive problem-solving with ground teams, including the modification of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to accommodate an additional crew member in the event of an emergency return, and leveraged the crew’s various skill sets and training to ensure continued safe and effective operations for current and future crews.
In Houston, Cassada served as a capsule communicator in NASA’s Mission Control Center and assistant to the chief of the Astronaut Office for space station operations. As a physicist and test pilot, Cassada also contributed to the development of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Orion spacecraft and represented the Astronaut Office in technical and operational reviews of scientific experiments such as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and Cold Atom Lab.
“Josh has played a significant role in NASA’s deliverance of reliable and cost-effective human transportation to and from the space station,” said Norm Knight, director of flight operations at NASA Johnson. “Through his dedication and commitment to human spaceflight exploration, Josh’s work will continue to push us forward on our journey back to the Moon, and beyond. We will miss him and are excited to see what his next journey entails.”
As he transitions from government service, Cassada will return to the private sector, working on extremely low light detection technologies with broad and emerging applications in various areas, including quantum networks and computing, remote sensing, long-range communication, semiconductor manufacturing, and medical imaging.
“I am incredibly grateful for my many opportunities here at NASA,” Cassada said, “and especially to have served alongside some of the most amazing people both on and off our planet, accomplishing things that are only possible when we work and innovate together as a team. As humans, we explore . And each scientific adventure, whether in a lab on Earth or in space, requires courage to explore and advance society. I am incredibly fortunate to have been surrounded by explorers during my entire career so far and going forward. An expedition may seem daunting, but it’s a lot less so when you’re prepared and with the right crewmates.”
Before his selection by NASA in 2013 as a member of NASA’s 21st Class, Cassada earned his doctorate in High Energy Particle Physics from the University of Rochester, New York and was a U.S. Navy pilot, instructor pilot, test pilot, and instructor test pilot. Throughout his career, Cassada has accumulated more than 4,000 flight hours in over 50 different aircraft and has been awarded various military and civilian awards.
Cassada graduated from White Bear Lake Area High School in Minnesota in 1991 and received his bachelor’s in Physics in 1995 from Albion College in Michigan.
Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
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Courtney Beasley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected three additional companies to provide launch services for future agency missions through its VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.
The companies awarded are:
Arrow Science and Technology LLC of Webster, Texas Impulse Space Inc. of Redondo Beach, California Momentus Space LLC of San Jose, California The VADR contract is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity instrument with an ordering period through Feb. 3, 2027 and a maximum total value of $300 million across all VADR contracts. NASA selected the new launch providers in accordance with VADR’s on-ramp provision, allowing the agency to add new capabilities not available or identified at the time of the initial award. NASA will issue firm-fixed-price task orders for launch services as needed for future agency and agency-sponsored missions.
The VADR contract builds on NASA’s previous procurement efforts, such as the VCLS (Venture Class Launch Services) and VCLS Demo 2, providing a broad range of Federal Aviation Administration-licensed commercial launch services capable of delivering Class D, CubeSats, and higher risk-tolerant payloads to a variety of orbits. By using a lower level of mission assurance and commercial best practices for launching rockets, these highly flexible contracts help broaden access to space through lower launch costs and serve as an ideal platform for contributing to NASA’s science research and technology development.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contracts. The program also works with private industry, spacecraft projects, and international partners to launch science payloads ranging from small satellites with colleges and universities to NASA’s highest priority missions.
For more information about NASA’s launch services, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/46SorXk
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Josh Finch / Julian Coltre
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling / Amanda Griffin
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575 / 321-593-6244
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov / amanda.griffin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 22, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Space Operations Mission Directorate CubeSats Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Office Launch Services Program NASA Headquarters View the full article
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By NASA
Interstellar Lab, a small business comprised of team members from France, Texas, and Florida, took home the $750,000 grand prize for their food system, NUCLEUS, which uses a multi-pronged approach to growing and harvesting food outputs for astronauts on long-duration human space exploration missions.Credit: OSU/CFAES/Kenneth Chamberlain NASA has awarded a total of $1.25 million to three U.S. teams in the third and final round of the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The teams delivered novel food production technologies that could provide long-duration human space exploration missions with safe, nutritious, and tasty food.
The competitors’ technologies address NASA’s need for sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space, including future Artemis missions and eventual journeys to Mars. Advanced food systems also could benefit life on Earth and inspire food production in parts of the world that are prone to natural disasters, food insecurity, and extreme environments.
“The Deep Space Food Challenge could serve as the framework for providing astronauts with healthy and delicious food using sustainable mechanisms,” said Angela Herblet, challenge manager for the Deep Space Food Challenge at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The challenge has brought together innovative and driven individuals from around the world who are passionate about creating new solutions that support our agency’s future Moon to Mars missions.”
Since the challenge’s launch in 2021, more than 300 teams from 32 countries have participated by submitting innovative food system designs. The competition, conceived and managed by NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA Marshall, is a first-of-its-kind coordinated effort between NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), which ran its own challenge in parallel.
Four American teams competed in Phase 3, which began in September 2023. The Methuselah Foundation partnered with Ohio State University to facilitate the final phase of the challenge, which included a two-month testing and demonstration period held on the university’s campus in Columbus, Ohio. Each U.S. team in Phase 3 was awarded $50,000 and took their technology to Columbus for testing.
Throughout this phase, the teams constructed full-scale food production systems that were required to pass developmental milestones like safety, sensory testing, palatability, and harvesting volumes. Each team worked with four “Simunauts,” a crew of Ohio State students who managed the testing and demonstrations for Phase 3 over the eight-week period. The data gathered from testing was delivered to a judging panel to determine the winner.
The challenge concluded at the Deep Space Food Symposium, a two-day networking and learning summit at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Aug. 15 and 16. Throughout the event, attendees met the Phase 3 finalists, witnessed demonstrations of the food production technologies, and attended panels featuring experts from NASA, government, industry, and academia. The winners of the challenge were announced at an awards ceremony at the end of the symposium.
The U.S. winner and recipient of the $750,000 grand prize is Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida. Led by Barbara Belvisi, the small business combines several autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled greenhouses to support a growth system involving a self-sustaining food production mechanism that generates fresh vegetables, microgreens, and insects necessary for micronutrients.
Two runners-up each earned $250,000 for their food systems’ successes: Nolux of Riverside, California, and SATED of Boulder, Colorado.
Nolux, a university team led by Robert Jinkerson, constructed an artificial photosynthetic system that can create plant and fungal-based foods without the operation of biological photosynthesis.
Standing for Safe Appliance, Tidy, Efficient & Delicious, SATED is a one-man team of Jim Sears, who developed a variety of customizable food, from pizza to peach cobbler. The product is fire-safe and was developed by long-shelf-life and in-situ grown ingredients.
NASA also selected and recognized one international team as a Phase 3 winner: Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, developed a food production system through gas fermentation that relies on single-cell protein production.
In April 2024, CSA and Impact Canada awarded the grand prize winner of its parallel challenge to Ecoation, a Vancouver-based small business specializing in greenhouses.
“Congratulations to the winners and all the finalist teams for their many years dedicated to innovating solutions for the Deep Space Food Challenge,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These food production technologies could change the future of food accessibility on other worlds and our home planet.”
Also present at the symposium was celebrity chef and cookbook author Tyler Florence. After spending time with each finalist team and getting acquainted with their food systems, Florence selected one team to receive the “Tyler Florence Award for Culinary Innovation.” Team SATED of Boulder, Colorado, received the honor for their system that impressed Florence due to its innovative approach to the challenge.
The Deep Space Food Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge, is a coordinated effort between NASA and CSA. Subject matter experts at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, supported the competition. NASA’s Centennial Challenges are part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Methuselah Foundation, in partnership with NASA, oversees the United States and international competitors.
To learn more about the Deep Space Food Challenge, visit:
nasa.gov/spacefoodchallenge
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Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
321-432-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-932-1940
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 19, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program Centennial Challenges Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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