Eric Roberts 
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the outstanding achievements of top contractors, subcontractors, teams, and individuals for fiscal year 2023 during the 36th gathering of the Marshall Small Business Alliance. The event, held on September 21 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration, brought together approximately 600 participants from both the industry and government sectors. This event served as a platform for networking, exploring business opportunities, and recognizing exceptional contributions to NASA’s mission and the small business community.
David Brock, the small business specialist in Marshall’s Office of Procurement, emphasized Marshall’s role as an “engine of opportunity” for the local community and beyond.
The Marshall Industry & Advocate Awards, presented annually, highlight leadership in the business community and sustained dedication to NASA’s mission. This year’s awardees include:
- Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year: Victory Solutions Inc.
- Small Business Subcontractor of the Year: Waterfront Technical Services
- Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year: Jacobs Space Exploration Group
- Small Business Mentor-Protégé of the Year Award: Jacobs/CH2M and K.S. Ware
- Procurement Person of the Year: Dana Justice, Marshall Office of Procurement
- Program Team of the Year: 2023 Small Business Action Team, Marshall Office of Procurement (comprising Michelle Anzalone, Ashley Cox, Stephanie Darnell, John David Eagan, Dana Justice, and Josh Wilbourn)
- Small Business Technical Advisor of the Year: Chip Jones, Marshall Science & Technology Office
- Small Business Technical Person of the Year: Karen Lawler, Marshall Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Recipients of these awards were nominated by NASA civil service employees, and a panel of NASA procurement and technical officials evaluated nominees based on their business practices, innovative processes, adoption of new technologies, and overall contributions to NASA’s mission and Small Business Program. Award recipients in specific categories also have the opportunity to compete for agency-level Small Business Industry and Advocate Awards.
In a separate announcement, NASA unveiled the 70 teams from 24 states and Puerto Rico selected to participate in the 2024 Student Launch Challenge, an annual competition for middle/high school and college/university students. The challenge requires teams to design, build, and launch a high-powered amateur rocket with a scientific payload. The event culminates in on-site competitions in April 2024, with final launches at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Each year, the competition includes a new payload challenge, and the 2024 challenge is inspired by the Artemis missions, aiming to simulate conditions of landing the first woman and person of color on the Moon. Students are tasked with designing a STEMnaut Atmosphere Independent Lander (SAIL) payload that can deploy mid-air, return safely to the ground without a parachute, and be reusable for a same-day launch. This payload will carry non-living objects representing astronauts, and students will determine metrics for assessing its endurance and landing parameters.
The competition is managed by Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement and receives additional support from various organizations and entities.
On September 30, the annual “Racin’ the Station” duathlon took place at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal. In this event, 160 athletes raced to complete the course faster than the International Space Station (ISS) completed one orbit around Earth, which takes approximately 91 minutes and 12 seconds. The event, in its 11th year, featured a race course that included a 3.14 km run, a 23 km bike ride, and another 3.14 km run, with the start and finish line at Marshall’s Wellness Center. The event also included educational components to inform the community about NASA’s activities.
In space-related news, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to launch on October 12 on a mission to study a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is the first mission to study an asteroid with a higher metal content than rock or ice. This mission aims to provide insights into the formation of rocky planets like Earth. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
In the world of astronomy, the James Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning image of NGC 346, the largest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). This image revealed the presence of dust within the region, challenging earlier assumptions that the SMC lacked significant amounts of cosmic dust. The SMC, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, is considered more primitive than our galaxy, as it contains fewer heavy elements.
Another significant discovery was made regarding NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which brought back a sample of the asteroid Bennu. Initial studies of the sample have revealed high-carbon content and water, which suggests the presence of the building blocks of life on Earth within the asteroid material. This finding has profound implications for understanding our solar system’s formation and the potential for life’s origins.
These remarkable achievements and ongoing missions demonstrate NASA’s dedication to advancing our understanding of the cosmos and our place within it.
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