Spotlight

 The Space Foundation continues to help educators integrate STEM education into their classrooms by providing professional development nationwide. Recent education outreach included science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professional development for teachers at The SEED School of Washington, D.C., featured in the documentary Waiting for Superman, and at Jefferson Middle School, in Washington, D.C. “Both schools were extremely excited to start…

 NASA astronaut Col. Michael T. Good, USAF (Retired), signed autographs at the Space Foundation booth and presented awards on Sept. 10 at the Chick-fil-A Patriots’ Festival and Ride for Heroes in Colorado Springs, Colo. Combining three bicycle rides with a free family event that remembered September 11, 2001, the Chick-fil-A Patriots’ Festival and Ride for…

The Space Foundation will have a prominent presence at the 62nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 3-7. At the invitation of NASA  Goddard Space Flight Center’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office, Space Foundation Director – Space Awareness Programs Kevin Cook is co-chairing the 22nd Symposium on Space Activity and Society and will deliver…

The website for the Space Foundation’s 28th National Space Symposium went live last week, signalling the opening of online registration for the premier gathering of the global space community. You can see full details about the 28th National Space Symposium, which will be held April 16-19, 2012, at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., by…

 Volunteer opportunities abound at the Space Foundation, giving space fans an inside role in global space activities. Each spring hundreds of volunteers help the Space Foundation make its annual National Space Symposium the premier gathering of the global space community. Symposium volunteers have an opportunity to sit in on panels and speeches, tour the innovative exhibit center…

The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed its Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) bill, S. 1572, which includes funds for NASA and NOAA. The CJS bill would appropriate $17.9 billion in funding for NASA, which is $800 million less than the president requested for FY 2012. Still, that’s $1.1 billion…

 Two new brochures are now available for educators describing Space Foundation education programs. Space Across the Curriculum The Space Across the Curriculum brochure describes the Space Foundation’s hands-on, professional development courses for PreK-12 educators. The classes, which will be offered next summer at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo., and at Colorado State University-Pueblo, are customized for every…

In mid-September, NASA revealed the design of its next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle that will carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), called the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS rocket’s core will be a larger derivative of the Space Shuttle external tank, which will include five Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) and initially two five-segment…

 The Space Foundation has set the schedule of the 2012 summer session of Space Across the Curriculum courses for preK-12 teachers. The courses, some of which will be held at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute (SFDI) in Colorado Springs, Colo., and some which will be held at Colorado State University – Pueblo (CSU-P), are week-long intensive graduate-level…

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Defense Appropriations bill, which includes $513 billion in spending – $25.9 billion less than the president requested and $13 billion less than the amount passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate Appropriations Committee stated the cuts were made as a result of “program terminations…