Q&A – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

Q&A with Steve Clarke, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s science division (members only)

November 29, 2018

It’s Steve Clarke’s job to merge the goals of space scientists with NASA’s strategic plans for exploring the solar system, two factors which are not always in lock-step, as the space agency seeks to return humans to the moon, and eventually send astronauts to Mars.

Q&A with Marc Rayman, chief engineer on NASA’s Dawn mission (members only)

November 1, 2018

Marc Rayman is chief engineer on NASA’s Dawn mission, which has run out of fuel after a 11-year interplanetary journey that explored Vesta and Ceres, the two largest objects in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Q&A with Dan Hart, president and CEO of Virgin Orbit (members only)

August 31, 2018

Dan Hart leads a staff of hundreds of engineers and technicians developing LauncherOne, a commercial air-launched booster intended to hurl small satellites weighing up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) into orbit.

Q&A with Andrew Driesman, project manager for Parker Solar Probe (members only)

July 31, 2018

Andrew Driesman is project manager for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, leading a team of engineers and operators in charge of the first mission to fly through the sun’s atmosphere.

Q&A with Heino Falcke, principal investigator of the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (members only)

June 1, 2018

Heino Falcke, an accomplished radio astronomer at Radboud University in the Netherlands, leads a team of European scientists and engineers who developed a scientific receiver flying on China’s Queqiao spacecraft flying to a point in space beyond the far side of the moon.

Q&A with Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL (members only)

May 14, 2018

Mimi Aung leads a cadre of engineers developing the Mars Helicopter, an aerial drone set to fly to the Red Planet with the Mars 2020 rover.

Q&A with Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator on NASA’s InSight mission (members only)

May 3, 2018

Bruce Banerdt leads the InSight science team, and is in charge of the lander heading for Mars to study the red planet’s interior structure, collecting data that should yield new information about the environment in the early solar system, when planets coalesced and formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Q&A with Sara Seager, deputy director of science on NASA’s TESS mission (members only)

April 15, 2018

Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at MIT, and she serves as deputy science director on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which aims to find planets around stars relatively close to the sun, searching for worlds that are ideal follow-up targets for missions like the James Webb Space Telescope.

Q&A with George Ricker, principal investigator for the TESS mission (members only)

April 14, 2018

George Ricker, an astronomer and pioneer in space imaging sensor ships at MIT, leads the science team for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Q&A with Mike Laidley, vice president of Orbital ATK’s Next Generation Launch program (members only)

April 10, 2018

Mike Laidley leads development of Orbital ATK’s Next Generation Launch system, a rocket the commercial space company hopes will provide a foothold in the lucrative market to launch U.S. military satellites, a business currently dominated by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.