United States
Politics reporter turned aerospace tech geek. Acting editor-in-chief of Aerospace America, overseeing the digital modernization of the 40-year-old magazine of AIAA, the world's largest technical society. A former USA Today politics intern and White House Correspondents' Association scholar, I've also covered local and national elections, as well as breaking and trending political news.
Technology
Nearly 10 years after its founding, Boom Supersonic earlier this year broke the sound barrier with its XB-1 subscale demonstrator — without generating a sonic boom. Cat Hofacker spoke to CEO Blake Scholl about Boom’s plan to automate this technique for its future passenger airliners.
The Vanguard 1 spacecraft narrowly missed out on the distinction of being the first U.S. satellite. Now, the grapefruit-sized aluminum sphere with spike-like antennas could gain another distinction.
What's the solution for achieving net-zero air travel by 2050? Hydrogen? Electrification? Rushing sustainable aviation fuel into today's jets? At least part of the answer could take flight in 2028. Inside the history and promise of Boeing's Transonic Truss-Braced Wing demonstrator.
As the 20th anniversary of the Columbia tragedy approached, Steven Wallace of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board discusses the creation of the board's report and whether its findings still ring true for NASA as it attempts to return humans to the moon under the Artemis program.
A decade ago, NASA commissioned some of the nation's top aerospace companies to build a series of expendable rockets to take American astronauts to the moon and someday to Mars. SpaceX started a similar project years after NASA but has spent vastly fewer tax dollars. Now both are racing to the launch pad.
At a basic level, Virgin Galactic’s flight on July 11 sounds a lot like the one Blue Origin plans to make nine days later. But the experiences of those aboard each vehicle will differ significantly.
NASA's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, concluding its seven-month journey to the red planet. But before the rover can begin its task of analyzing and caching samples of Martian rocks and soil, it has to dispatch the little hitchhiker in its belly, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
Businesses are finding creative solutions to maintain social distance and hopefully reduce transmission of the coronavirus. Those expecting similar innovations from the air travel industry will be disappointed.
During training flights off the East Coast of the U.S. in 2014 and 2015, unidentified gauzy blobs showed up on the cockpit displays of F/A-18 jets so often that U.S. Navy pilots gave them a nickname. "Usually we'd just say, 'we're seeing one of those damn things again,'" Ryan Graves, a former Navy lieutenant and F/A-18F pilot, told us in a September phone interview.
Policy
When Jeff Bezos inspires us with visions of colonies in low-Earth orbit or Elon Musk tweets about terraforming Mars, the need to discuss the laws that would govern such off-world societies might not spring immediately to mind. But lawyer Caryn Schenewerk believes it’s these “unsexy” discussions that will pave the way for humanity to expand beyond Earth.
Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced his sharpest criticism yet Wednesday over decisions made at Boeing in the design and certification of the 737 MAX jets. "You have a systemic problem in your company," Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., told Muilenburg during a hearing of the House Transportation Committee.
Comparing Pence and JFK -- the rhetoric around the Apollo and Artemis moon programs is remarkably similar, but the times are not as seen at the 2019 International Astronautical Congress.
CLOSE WASHINGTON - Marilyn and Tom Eckles may be Democrats, but they braved the cold on Tuesday to honor a Republican. In the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol, they wound through the maze of others who also gathered to pay their respects to former President George H.W. Bush.
Matthew Shepard's ashes will be interred at the National Cathedral Friday, 20 years after his death.
CLOSE WASHINGTON - At Yale and Harvard, students are battling over which university can get the most pledges to vote in next month's midterms. And down south, at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the National Urban League is setting up a booth at Saturday's homecoming game to urge students to vote.
Community
Nina Adanin and her fellow scientists and explorers relied on immersive technology like small drones and 360-degree cameras, stored near their bodies to be kept warm as they skied for hundreds of miles in the High Arctic.
Most bacterial infections follow a similar path: you get sick, a doctor prescribes antibiotics that target the infection, you get better. But what if scientists could switch off the infection before it started?
What sets a teacher apart? For Felton Morrell, it's "the love and support, the consistency." Four years ago, the Jacksonville, Florida, student found those qualities in Amy Donofrio, whose leadership class would take him further than he could imagine.
Community health workers are known by a lot of names: outreach worker, patient advocate, public health aide. Some think "cheerleader" could be added to the list.
Ohio University students studying engineering and technology know to expect rigorous coursework and lots of career options. The field's female students also know to expect a huge gender gap.
There's a name for students who are the first in their families to attend college: first-gen. On Ohio University's six campuses, they represent at least 30% of the student body. Here's just one of their stories.