Dava J. Newman Apollo Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems Former Director of Technology and Policy Program (2003-2015) MacVicar Faculty Fellow Campus Office: Room 33-307 Phone: (617) 258-8799 Fax: (617) 253-4196 Email: dnewman@mit.edu B.S., 1986, University of Notre Dame (Aerospace Engineering) S.M., 1989, MIT (Aeronautics & Astronautics) S.M., 1989, MIT (Technology and Policy) Ph.D., 1992, MIT (Aero. Biomed. Engineering)

Graduate Orientation Speech

Keynote Address: Graduate Orientation Welcome- download pdf

Research Interests

Humans have evolved in and are optimally developed for the Earth-normal 1 G (9.8 m/s2) environment. Are the mechanics and energetic requirements of human performance across the continuum of gravity from microgravity (0 G) to lunar and Martian gravity levels (1/6 G and 3/8 G, respectively) to hypergravity (>1 G) altered from the 1 G mechanics and energetics? The multidisciplinary research effort combines aerospace bioengineering, human-in-the-loop dynamics and control modeling, biomechanics, human interface technology, life sciences, and systems analysis and design. The research studies are carried out through flight experiments, ground-based simulations, and mathematical and computer modeling. Other research efforts include advanced space suit design and navigation aids for EVA astronauts.

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Research

Modeling the dynamics of human performance: To develop the computational capabilities to accurately model the complete integrated dynamic system preflight (e.g., astronaut, Orbiter, remote manipulator arm, and a spinning satellite). Quantitative analysis of humans performing extravehicular activity (EVA) and intravehicular activity (IVA) is investigated through inverse dynamics, Lagrangian techniques, and Kane's theory of dynamics.

Dynamics and Control of Astronaut Motion

Adaptive physiological control: Engineering control theory is applied to human physiological systems. Characterization of dynamic motion control strategies is quantified through hierarchical control strategies, vestibular and proprioceptive feedback, and musculoskeletal impedance control. Insight into adaptive mechanisms operating on these motor programs is gained by focusing in particular on the changes in control strategies resulting from exposure to microgravity. Studies include pre- and post-flight astronaut jumping performance and novel false platform experiments where subjects "fall through the floor" to elicit preprogrammed motor control strategies.

Locomotion Modeling and Orthoses

The objective of this project is to build walking assistive devices for the physically handicapped by combining a deep understanding of the mechanism of walking, the physiology of the human body and engineering insight. This project began with the goal of building a Powered Assistive Walking Device for Paraplegics. This device would be inconspicuously mounted on a paraplegic and have compact actuators with an adaptive control system that would allow them to walk extended periods of time. There is an extensive background of assistive walkers.

Current work is being done on modeling of the leg, specially the ankle, and developing an adaptive Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO), a custom-designed ankle brace to allow weakened individuals to walk normally.

Space Flight Experiments

The Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors (EDLS) experiment is currently on board the Russian MIR space station. Investigation of the dynamic response inside the spacecraft/vehicle including disturbances by crewmembers and investigations of the fundamental consequences of microgravity on living organisms during space flight. Engineering analysis, hardware design, and ground-based scientific studies precede flight opportunities. Astronaut crew disturbance to the microgravity environment as measured by crew-induced loads in the middeck of the Space Shuttle. Follow-on experiments might include mitigation devices as well as an assessment of crew force measurements during Shuttle/MIR flights.

Teleoperation and Telemedicine

Computer Simulation and Animation

Mathematical programming for analytical models that simulate in-space operations and activities. Developing 3-D visualization and animation packages for the dynamics and control research efforts. All computer simulations are verified with experimental data. Future efforts may include haptic input devices and virtual reality technologies to enhance the computer simulations.

Teaching

• ESD.801: Leadership Development
• 16.00: Introduction to Aerospace Engineering and Design
• 16.A29: Beyond the Space Station: Future Human Planetary Exploration (Freshman Seminar)
• 16.423J: Aerospace Biomedical and Life Support Engineering
• 16.459: Bioengineering Journal Article Seminar

Selected Publications

Note: some publications are linked to abstracts.

• Book and Journal Papers
• Conference Papers
• Other Major Publications
• Internal Memoranda and Progress Reports

Press/Media Coverage on Research

General Media Coverage

• Wired Italy, "Oliviero Toscani Photography"
  
• TXCHNOLOGIST, "Commercial Space Travel From Private Launches to Space Tourism"
• Boldfaces, " Dava The Explorer"
• Boston Home-Innovators Things I Love, "OVER THE MOON"
• NASA.gov ,"Building the Future Spacesuit".
• Business Insider, "This New Form-Fitting Spacesuit Could Revolutionize How Astronauts Move In Space"
• Fast Co.Exist "This Sliik Spiderman Spacesuit Could Take Astronauts To Mars"
• GIGAOM.COM "These Are The Futuristic (and hot) Space Suits Astronauts Could Wear On Mars"
• MIT NEWS "Shrink-Wrapping Spacesuits September 18, 2014"
• When We Get to Mars? #MarsGeneration @EconomistEvents  Video 1, Video 2 and Video 3
• RPR 19 "Dr. Dava Newman, Former NASA Deputy Administrator, MIT Professor"
• MIT NEWS "Lessons In NASA Leadership with Ellen Ochoa and Dava Newman"
• Aspen Ideas Festival, Spotlight Health "Dava Newman and Todd Stern share perspectives on climate change from space and on earth in conversation with Steve Clemons of The Atlantic at Spotlight Health." Aspen CO June 23, 2018
• Gilmour Space Launch Services "Gilmour Space appoints senior space experts to Advisory Board" July 19, 2018
• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness "Sentate Testimony on Humans to Mars" July 25, 2018
• UP Magazine "Through Other Eyes" November 20, 2018.

Radio Interviews

• "Into the Unknown, of Big Picture Science"
• KCRW /NPR What Could the Next Space Suit look like? "NASA wants to send astronauts back to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. But their existing space suits are too bulky and from the 1970s. Dava Newman is a former NASA Deputy Administrator, and she and her team at MIT have come up with a relatively lightweight, custom fit Bio-Suit.” August 2, 2018.

Deputy Administrator Newman News Clips

12/29/16 Investor Business Daily: Katherine Johnson Did the Math for NASA When It Counted Most
Katherine Johnson could count, and John Glenn Counted on her NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said in an agency statement that Johnson "literally wrote the textbook on rocket science," and that her work will provide the foundation for eventual manned Mars missions. "Few Americans have impacted the cause of human exploration so extensively. At NASA, we are proud to stand on Katherine Johnson's shoulders." Newman: "Katherine once remarked that while many of her colleagues refrained from asking questions or taking tasks further than merely 'what they were told to do,' she chose instead to ask questions because she wanted to know why." [Investor’s Business Daily, 12/29/16]

12/28/16 WBUR: 2016 Was a Good Year for NASA. Whats Next? Space exploration took significant leaps forward this year. There were planets discovered and gravitational waves detected. NASA's Juno spacecraft got an up close look at Jupiter. Astronaut Scott Kelly's "year in space" mission provided a window into what a long-term space flight to Mars might mean for the human body. Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti talks with NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman (@DavaExplorer) about the year's accomplishments and setbacks, and what they might mean for the years ahead. [WBUR.org, 12/28/16]

 

12/21/16 “ SpaceNews: DARPA, NASA seek industry help setting satellite-servicing standards (op-ed)"                                    For nearly 60 years, since the launch of Sputnik on Oct 4, 1957, humans have been a spacefaring race. Our exploration of this final frontier and attempts to make ourselves at home in its unforgiving environs have been punctuated by spectacular successes as well as some of humanity’s most heartbreaking failures. Yet some of the most frustrating experiences in space have been those that fell somewhere in between: satellites that successfully achieved their desired orbit, but then failed to function properly, or whose missions were cut short because of the premature loss of a key instrument. These frustrations are often two-fold—first because ground controllers have an incomplete picture of what exactly has gone wrong, and second because even if they do figure that out, there is typically little that can be done about it. [SpaceNews.com, 12/21/16]

12/15/16 “ Daily Press: Spotlight on ‘Hidden Figures’ at White House for NASA Langley Engineers
The event featured first lady Michelle Obama, movie stars including Oscar winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer and — most impressive of all to Debbie Martinez — a constellation of female superstars from NASA and the space program. Martinez, herself an engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton since 1990, admits she had her breath taken away by the opportunity to attend a preview screening of "Hidden Figures" at the White House on Thursday afternoon…Martinez, Williams-Byrd and Amer were part of a panel discussion hosted by senior adviser to the president Valerie Jarrett, who chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls. The panel also featured astronaut Yvonne Cagle, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith and Dava Newman, deputy administrator of NASA. [Daily Press, 12/15/16]

12/13/16 "News 6 WKMG Orlando: ‘Hidden Figures' cast visits site of historic Friendship 7 launch"                                    More than 60 years after Friendship 7 launched from Cape Canaveral carrying John Glenn to orbit Earth, actors who are retelling an unknown part of that story toured the launch pad on Monday… Musician Pharrell Williams, who wrote and produced the movie soundtrack, was also at the space center on Monday. Williams talked about his space heroes calling NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk modern-day pioneers. [News 6 WKMG, 12/13/16]

12/8/16 “ USA Today: What Happens if Delaware-sized iceberg breaks off Antarctica?"
Scientists taking part in NASA's annual Operation IceBridge mission to measure changes in the polar ice and sea discovered the latest crack last month, according to the agency. Operation IceBridge employs the most precise instruments to fly over Antarctica, NASA scientist John Sonntag told The Christian Science Monitor. The mission studies the Arctic and the Antarctic, the most remote place on earth, NASA said. "Why do we do this?" NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman asked in a social media presentation. "It's critically important for all of us, all of humanity, especially looking at sea rise and climate change." [USA Today, 12/8/16]

12/3/16 “ International Business Times: Buzz Aldrin South Pole Evacuation: NASA Official Visits Ex-Astronaut In New Zealand Hospital"
NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman visited former U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin Saturday after he was evacuated from the South Pole due to illness. Aldrin is responding well to antibiotics and is in stable condition. Aldrin, who was part of the Apollo 11 mission, posted pictures of himself with Newman with the accompanying text reading: “I had a surprise visitor this morning. My longtime friend @DavaExplorer @NASA Dep Administrator. She beat me to the South Pole by one day.” [International Business Times, 12/3/16]

12/2/16 – AP: NASA visits Buzz Aldrin’s bedside in New Zealand following polar evacuation"
Buzz Aldrin had an unexpected bedside visit from NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman on Saturday as he continued to recover in a New Zealand hospital from his medical evacuation from the South Pole. Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, posted a picture of himself with Newman on Twitter. Aldrin, who was wearing pyjamas and sitting up in bed, was giving a thumbs-up sign, as was Newman. “I had a surprise visitor this morning. My longtime friend ... She beat me to the South Pole by one day,” Aldrin wrote. Newman also posted some pictures on Twitter of Aldrin sitting up in bed and gesticulating, with a tray of food and juice in front of him. [AP, 12/2/16]

November 2016 “ National Geographic: Mars: Inside the High-Risk, High-Stakes Race to the Red Planet"
In June, six months after SpaceX triumphantly landed its booster, NASA held its own rocket test in the hills of northern Utah. This was a “ground test” of a solid-fuel booster that will be an integral element of the Space Launch System… “We are closer than ever before to sending American astronauts to Mars than anyone, anywhere, at any time has ever been,” NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman wrote in a blog post this past April. To some of NASA’s critics, it doesn’t feel that way. [National Geographic, November 2016]

11/28/16 “ Cornell Sun: Top NASA Official to Visit Cornell, Speak on Mars Exploration"
Dava Newman, the deputy director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will detail NASA’s progress in planning human exploration of Mars at a lecture next Thursday. The organization is currently researching technology — including solar-powered propulsion and space agriculture — that will design long-term missions in which “explorers will be practically independent from spaceship Earth,” according to a release from Cornell’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. NASA aims to have “boots on Mars” within the next two decades. [Cornell Sun, 11/28/16]

11/1/2016 “ RT: NASA in talks with Russian space agency over joint mission to Venus - report"
The US and Russia may join efforts in exploring the second planet from the Sun, as NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos are discussing a joint mission to Venus, Russian media reports. NASA has already drawn up a number of scenarios for the joint mission with their Russian counterparts to Venus, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny told the Izvestiya daily. The goal of the project dubbed Venus-D is to design a capsule that would manage to survive extreme conditions on the surface of the Earth’s closest neighbor for up to a day, he added. “A joint working team put forward several scenarios of the project in October, with Russian and American competences complementing each other. After that we discussed the matter with NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, who confirmed NASA's interest to the Venus-D project,” Zeleny said in an interview with Izvestiya published on Tuesday. [rt.com,11/1/2016]

10/31/16 “ Notre Dame Office of Public Affairs: Limitless Mission to Mars"
Two-thirds of the way through the longest open-ocean leg of a circumnavigation of the world, Notre Dame alumna Dava Newman suddenly lost control of her 47-foot sailboat… That lesson in surviving a harsh environment has served Newman well in her leadership of NASA and its “horizon goal” to put people on Mars in the 2030s. It also helped fuel her ambition to push further into space, an endeavor supported by academic research that includes several NASA-funded projects at Notre Dame aiming to expand the limits of human exploration. These projects range from scientists developing new ways to find the nearest earth-like planets to engineers studying the origins of the moon or the conversion of solar energy into electricity. “It’s important to point out how far away Mars is,” Newman said. “Like when I was sailing, you really have to be autonomous out there because you will be Earth independent.” Newman said NASA’s investment in university research is “absolutely critical” to its future because the knowledge and equipment needed for long-distance space travel are still under development. For instance, she cited the work of David Go, the Rooney Family Associate Professor of Engineering, who is developing new methods to generate electrical power from solar and thermal energy… After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1986, Newman earned three graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she later taught and conducted research on a radical new spacesuit design that is less bulky than pressurized gas suits. The long-distance flight to Mars and the extended time in space and Mars’ atmosphere was always in her mind. She did not hesitate to accept the presidential appointment to the NASA post because it’s “an incredible opportunity for service,” she said. [ND.edu, 10/31/16]

10/30/2016 “ The Wall Street Journal: NASA’s Dava Newman on the Mars Plan"
“You don’t spend 24/7 every hour, every minute of your day thinking about how to get people to Mars. That’s what I do. We will become interplanetary. That’s what I do every second of my life. Why Mars? We’re going to search for the evidence of life. Does Mars have life today? Or could it have had past life? Mars and Earth are 4.5 billion years old each, sister planets. Something probably went terribly wrong at Mars. We think it did have life. That teaches us about life here on Earth. So, in all of our exploring, that’s really the fundamental question. We’re going to search for the evidence of life, past or present, in the entire solar system.” [wsj.com, 10/30/2016]

10/26/16 “ The Wall Street Journal: WSJ Head to Mars in VR (video)"
NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and WSJ's Personal Technology Columnist Geoffrey Fowler don augmented reality headsets and take a virtual reality tour of Mars on stage at the WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, Calif. [wsj.com, 10/26/16]

10/27/2016“ AL.com: 'We're not doing our job,' NASA leader tells Alabama rocket engineers"
“We are not doing our job," NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman told a roomful of aerospace engineers in Huntsville Thursday. "I can put it clearly on us." An aerospace engineer herself, Newman was speaking to the 9th Von Braun Space Symposium about the hurdles the profession puts in front of women and minority students. The conference finished Thursday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). "We said, 'You have to be the best and brightest in calculus and math and physics.' Well, how intimidating is that?" Newman asked. "No, no, no. I say it's a different conversation. 'You want to find life in the universe? You want to build rockets? Then, you're in.'" Instead of filtering students out, Newman said government, academia and industry today are looking for ways "to filter every single one of those young folks in." [AL.com, 10/27/2016]

10/25/16 “ AL.com: Where's America going in space? This Alabama conference seeks answers"
Where is America's space policy going after the election? The candidates haven't said much, but the possibilities are among the tantalizing topics experts will debate this week at the 9th Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium on space in Huntsville. Also on the agenda are talks by Deputy NASA Administrator Dava Newman and Harrison Schmitt, one of the last two men to walk on the moon and the only scientist to go there. Other panels feature former NASA administrator Mike Griffin and NASA astronaut Christina Koch… Dava Newman, who speaks Thursday morning, is a former professor of astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nominated by President Obama in January 2015 and confirmed by the Senate in April of that year. That's a rare Washington example of cross-party agreement. [AL.com, 10/25/16]

10/16/16 “ The Tartan (Carnegie Mellon University Student Newspaper): President Barack Obama headlines Frontiers Conferece at Carnegie Mellon"
Subsequently, a panel featuring experts on space exploration was introduced. Anousheh Ansari, an Internet of Things company CEO, former astronaut NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, and Blue Origin Manager Erika Wagner were the guests. Each offered a unique perspective on how they became interested in space, the final frontier. They offered their visions and prospects of what could soon become reality, and discussed what inspired them to turn towards space. [The Tartan, 10/16/16]

10/13/16 “ Inverse: In Space, No One Can Succeed Alone"
Space is not a competition, but a collaboration. That was the message from Anousheh Ansari, CEO and Co-Founder of Prodea Systems. She’s been to space, self-funding her way onto a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station in 2006. Ansari describes her experiences as transformative, and on Thursday, said as much: “You see the need to collaborate and work together on a deep level.” Ansari’s comments came during the “Interplanetary Frontiers” panel at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh. She was one of three of the space industry’s top leaders — all women — who talked about the future of space travel and humanity’s push toward new boundaries of outer space. The panelists, from public and private sectors, pursue wildly different interests, but the consensus they came to was clear: Various national space agencies need to work together if we want to achieve interplanetary travel. That’s a sentiment shared by Dava Newman, the Deputy Administrator for NASA. “I’ve spent my entire career thinking about how to get humans to Mars,” she said, and in describing the agency’s three-phase journey. Newman reiterated how NASA is looking to turn low Earth orbit operations over to the commercial sector and keep it sustainable. “That’s really where we’re placing our bets,” she said. The government is also actively looking for the private industry to help spur innovation in the space sector. Newman cites NASA’s NextSTEP program as a way in which the federal government can leverage the creativity of the commercial industry towards helping NASA expand its presence into deep space and make it to Mars… Newman, representing NASA, was even more direct: “Everyone’s success is our success. The next generation,” she said, “is the space generation. It’s in the interest of everyone to work together to open up space to as many people as possible.” [Inverse, 10/13/16]

10/6/16 “ Observer: The Space Industry’s Most Powerful Women Call for Gender Diversity & Visibility"
The International Astronautical Federation introduced a new diversity initiative at their annual Congress last week with speeches from a few of the most powerful women in the space industry. The “3-G” Diversity program, presented at a luncheon sponsored by Lockheed Martin, focused on geographical, generational, and gender diversity. According to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), only 28% of the world’s science researchers are women. The Deputy Administrator of NASA, Dava Newman,  shared some of the agency’s diversity numbers, explaining that female scientists accounted for 28% of their workforce, while female engineers were only 23%. Newman described the space industry as a complex field, where a critical issue is the need to expand innovation and foster creativity through a diverse workforce. “Diversity equals excellence, and excellence demands that we have diversity,” Newman said… Newman and Sears explained that digital media can have a negative impact on diversity in the space industry. A quick Google search bears this out: the query “engineer” portrays men with hard hats on. Sears believes this will turn off a lot of young women who would not be able to picture themselves in that role. “People need to see engineers who look like everyone in this room, and more,” said Newman. [Observer.com, 10/6/16]

10/3/16 “ Motherboard: Beyond Musk: The Six Trends That Will Change Space Exploration Forever"
Founded in 1950 by the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Astronautical Federation, each year the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) brings together the biggest players in the space world for a week of discussions bearing on humanity’s future in the final frontier… NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman speaking about the need for greater diversity in the space sector. [Motherboard.Vice.com, 10/3/16]

September 2016

9/28/16 – GeekWire: A virtual marketplace for a future Moon Village? The FAA just might make it happen
If the world wants to create a village on the moon, the Federal Aviation Administration is willing to start up an online trading post for lunar services. George Nield, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, says he doesn’t even need to wait for the village to be built… Nield brought up the idea of creating LMASS during a session focusing on the European Space Agency’s Moon Village concept. While NASA officials highlight the “Journey to Mars,” ESA and its director general, Jan Woerner, have been championing the Moon Village as a model for lunar surface operations… What does NASA think of all this? Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said the space agency’s push for sending astronauts to the Red Planet and its moons in the 2030s “definitely includes going from Earth, to moon cislunar [space], to Mars.” However, NASA isn’t likely to take the lead role on the moon’s surface. Instead, the main interest in the moon is coming from other countries, and from commercial ventures. [GeekWire, 9/28/16]

9/19/2016 – Popular Science: Watch Grace Potter’s New Music Video about the Women of NASA
In collaboration with Johnson Space Center, singer-songwriter Grace Potter has debuted a new music video, "Look What We've Become." It showcases decades of accomplishments by women at NASA, and was shot at Johnson. The video highlights the accomplishments of past and present women of NASA. Among them is Katherine Johnson, one of the first African-American women to work at NASA as a mathematician (or "human computer"), performing calculations for the Mercury, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs. Johnson also recently had a NASA building named after her. Catherine T. Osgood, aeronautical engineer at the Manned Spacecraft Center in the '60s, who helped perfect rendezvous techniques during the Gemini Project and its successful Moon landings, is also in the video. Current NASA all-stars represent, too, including NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, JSC Director and astronaut Ellen Ochoa, and JSC Chief Scientist Eileen Stansberry. The three young rocketeers at the end are part of a local rocket club, and they placed fourth in a national competition this year, JSC external relations' Jeannie Aquino told Popular Science. [popsci.com, 9/19/2016]

9/14/16 – Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Wednesday Sept. 14, Our World In Pictures
Brooklyn Rep. Talks NASA: U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), was recently presented with a U.S. flag, a New York state flag and an Administrator’s coin by NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Dava Newman (left). The congresswoman spoke to Newman about NASA’s programs and the need to encourage more young people to embrace STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). [Brooklyn Eagle, 9/14/16]

9/13/2016 – The Rice Thresher (Rice University Student Paper): NASA leader expresses Mars exploration hopes (Houston, Texas)
Dava Newman, deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, spoke on “NASA’s Journey to Mars and Beyond,” in a lecture hosted by the Rice Space Institute on Sept. 7. Newman addressed a full crowd after a reception in Duncan Hall. The lecture was a continuation of the Houston Spaceport Frontier Lecture series that started in 2011, and sought to draw Rice students and the community into a conversation about space. Newman began the lecture by discussing NASA’s current projects, but the focus quickly shifted to how NASA aims to meet U.S. President Barack Obama’s charge to get boots on Mars by the mid-2030s. “We do have a plan,” Newman said. “We are charged by the president to send humans out, first to Earth-moon orbit and then to Mars, and hopefully we can sustain this and keep the momentum going.” According to Newman, NASA must design a multitude of new solutions before Mars comes within reach. The agency is working to advance technologies for habitation structures, humanoid robots and early descent landing, among other challenges. [ricethresher.org, 9/13/2016]

9/9/16 – Florida Today: McCay inaugurated as fifth Florida Tech president
The man who started out as a plumber's apprentice was inaugurated as the Florida Institute of Technology's fifth president Friday afternoon. T. Dwayne McCay has worked as a disc jockey, a tech columnist, a professor, a principal investigator at NASA and most recently executive vice president and chief operating officer for Florida Tech. But, doing what he loves, he'll tell you he hasn't worked a day in his life. For the past 14 years, he's been right-hand man to former university president Anthony Catanese, who saw students quadruple, revenue triple and a campus blossom. "Most of us here today are already aware that President McCay has accomplished a great deal for the university," said keynote speaker and NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman… It is that commitment to strengthening the Space Coast workforce that outfits McCay for the role as president, said Newman, who also lauded his focus on student success and dedication to strengthening partnerships with organizations like NASA. [Florida Today, 9/9/16]

9/6/2016 – WBUR.org: The ‘Hidden Figures’ Who Helped NASA Win The Space Race
The untold story of the black women — mathematicians — who helped NASA win the space race. We’ll talk to the author of “Hidden Figures.” Think of NASA and the early days of the space race, and you’re likely to envision a bunch of white guys in crew cuts and chunky glasses at Mission Control. Behind the scenes, there was another, most unlikely reality: a crew of black women doing the math that would guide those American rockets into space and home again. Their story is about to be a big movie with Taraji P. Henson and more. We’ve got the woman who wrote it. This hour On Point: the black women who steered the space race. Guest: Dr. Dava Newman, deputy administrator of NASA. Former professor of aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Author of “Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design.” [wbur.org, 9/6/2016]

9/1/2016 – NBC News: SpaceX Rocket Explosion Destroys Facebook Internet Satellite
A SpaceX rocket exploded on the launchpad this morning in Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroying the rocket and a communications satellite that had been set to help Facebook deliver internet service to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is in Africa this week visiting government leaders, developers and entrepreneurs, posted he is "deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent." NASA will offer SpaceX technical support for the mission, including access to the Deep Space Network, in exchange for data on Martian entry, descent and landing, according to a blog post from Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. [NBC News, 9/1/2016]

 

August 2016

8/22/2016 – Smithsonian Magazine: Soon Everyone Will Be Able to Read NASA-Funded Research
When it comes to space, there are few scientific fields that NASA doesn't fund—from looking at the effects that life on the International Space Station has on astronauts' hair to how climate change affects the Earth’s rotation. Now, the space agency is taking steps to ensure that most of the journal articles coming out of those studies will be freely available to the public. “At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman says in a statement. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space.” [smithsonianmag.com, 8/22/2016]

8/22/2016 – Nature World News: NASA-Funded Research Now Available Online For Free
This is not the first time that NASA released a part of their information treasure trove to public domain. Last May, this year, NASA also put some of its databases into public domain that was greatly appreciated by the public. "At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications. Through open access and innovation, we invite the global community to join us in exploring the Earth, air and space," NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman said in a statement. [natureworldnews.com, 8/22/2016]

8/22/2016 – The Christian Science Monitor: NASA opens research to public: Why that’s a big deal
NASA announced last Tuesday that they would be releasing hundreds of peer-reviewed, scholarly articles on NASA-funded research projects online. The articles are entirely free to access for any member of the public. The new service is a big deal for the space agency, which has been gathering scientific information on a huge variety of topics since it was established in 1958. “At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman in the press release. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space.” [csmonitor.com, 8/22/2016]

8/20/16 – Tech Times: NASA's Publicly-Funded Research Is Now Available For Free Online
If you're the type that simply can't get enough of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as NASA, but are not in a position where you would be able to get your fix, then you're in luck. The agency announced over the weekend a massive new public project that has made all of its research available for free online. The portal, called Pubspace, hosts a multitude of NASA research topics that anyone who has expressed any level of interest in the group's work in the past will no doubt enjoy, ranging in topics like the toxicity of lunar dust or the composition of Earth's early atmosphere, to keeping fit in space and the ages of the lunar seas. "At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications," said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. "Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space." [Tech Times, 8/20/16]

8/20/2016 – Daily Dot: How to access NASA's scientific research online for free
NASA's goal is to pursue scientific discovery for the betterment of all mankind. To that end, earlier this week, the agency released much of the research it has backed over the years into an online portal called PubSpace. Now anyone with internet access can learn about everything from the potential for toxic lunar dust to cause health problems in rats to the origin of life on Mars.  “At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said in a statement. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air, and space.” [dailydot.com, 8/20/2016]

8/20/2016 – Quartz: Now anyone can access NASA-funded research
NASA has a new gift for space junkies. The US space agency has announced that it will be archiving research data at a web portal open to the public. Beginning this year, all NASA-funded authors of peer-reviewed papers will be required to provide copies of their science journal articles and the accompanying data. The research will be made available on the public portal, for free, within a year of publication. “At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications. Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space,” NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman said in a press release. [qz.com, 8/20/2016]

8/19/16 – New Zealand Listener: New Zealand’s relative isolation and unique vantage point for the Milky Way appeal to Nasa’s scientists
In the mid-19th century, Eta Carinae put on a major show, outshining every other star in the night sky for a couple of decades, before calming down again. From Sofia, it appeared not as a fiery glowing star but as a collection of data and line graphs on De Buizer’s laptop screen. A high-powered audience, including Nasa deputy administrator Dava Newman and US Ambassador to New Zealand Mark Gilbert, watched as De Buizer and his colleagues pored over the data coming from the telescope. [New Zealand Listener, 8/19/16]

8/18/2016 – Space.com: NASA Opens Research Portal for Scientists
NASA has a new web portal highlighting the research funded by the agency, and promises to put all its peer-reviewed studies online in less than a year. The research will be available on PubSpace, an archive maintained by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. There is no charge to register, and the data can be downloaded and analyzed, NASA officials said. "At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications," NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said in the same statement. "Through open access and innovation, we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space." [Space.com, 8/18/2016]

July 2016

7/18/16 – Otago Daily Times: Mission to Mars NASA’s New Frontier
Nasa deputy administrator Dava Newman, previously a professor of astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,was in Dunedin this week and spoke to reporter John Gibb about Nasa's plans for a manned landing on Mars by 2039. Travelling to Mars is no longer an idle pipe dream, and Nasa deputy administrator Dava Newman is confident astronauts will have their boots on the Red Planet by 2039. Dr Newman has been in Dunedin this week to speak at the 10th biennial New Zealand International Science Festival, with funding support from the United States embassy. She outlined Nasa's vision for travel to Mars in a talk titled "Exploring Together'' at the University of Otago's St David lecture theatre at 7.30pm on Thursday. Dr Newman was enjoying her first trip to New Zealand- "a beautiful country''-, having spent a few days in the North Island before heading South. [Otago Daily Times, 7/18/16]

7/15/2016 – Otago Daily Times: Mars mission will be 'global'
NASA is seeking wide international support for its plan for astronauts to get their "boots on Mars'' by 2039. NASA deputy administrator Dr. Dava Newman made that point in Dunedin yesterday, after arriving in Dunedin to speak at the 10th biennial New Zealand International Science Festival. Dr. Newman will outline NASA's vision for travel to Mars in a talk titled "Exploring Together'' at the University of Otago's St David lecture theatre at 7.30pm today. "I'm so thrilled to be part of anything that has been running for two decades,'' she said of the festival. Asked if she would be willing to travel to Mars on NASA's space craft Orion, if it was leaving next week, she said she would. [odt.co.nz, 7/15/2016]

7/12/16 – NewsHub: NASA scientist encourages Kiwi girls to code
The country's next generation of tech whizzes have had a visit from NASA's new deputy administrator. It's her first time in New Zealand and she says she'll be leaving inspired by what Kiwi kids are doing. Dr Dava Newman's work is literally out of this world. Now she's bringing it back down to Earth to show pupils from low-decile schools around Auckland that they can reach those heights too. "They learned some really important lessons not only about coding, but mostly about confidence and what they can do, and maybe pushing themselves beyond what they ever thought they could do," she says. [NewsHub, 7/12/16]

7/6/16 – Otago Daily Times: Bionic Arms to Feature at Festival
A man who gives children personalised bionic arms and a Nasa leader preparing for the first manned trip to Mars are among the stars of the latest New Zealand International Science Festival. Albert Manero, of Florida, is a doctoral student in mechanical engineering who founded a non-profit organisation called Limbitless Solutions. This organisation uses 3-D printing technology to produce low cost bionic arms which are given to children, transforming their lives. Mr Manero, and Nasa deputy administrator Dr Dava Newman, who will discuss space travel plans, are two of the main overseas speakers at the festival, which starts in Dunedin on Friday and runs until Saturday week. [Otago Daily Times, 7/6/16]

7/2/2016 – PC Mag: Amazing Images From Juno's Journey to Jupiter (So Far)
In August 2011, a NASA space-bot embarked on a five-year journey to visit our solar system's resident pepperoni-faced, not-quite-a-star Jupiter. This Monday, the first leg of the journey will come to an end when the LEGO-equipped Juno spacecraft enters into a polar orbit around the gaseous behemoth. And then the real science begins. One of the tools NASA is most excited about is the Junocam, which NASA's deputy administrator Dava Newman described to PCMag in an exclusive interview as "our biggest effort in citizen science. The public will help decide what images to capture. As long as we're in orbit, we're going to say, 'Okay,' to the public, 'where do you want it? Help us explore.' It's a huge experiment in citizen science, so you can tell us where you want to look on Jupiter and we'll point the camera." Check the cam's website for more info. [pc.mag.com, 7/2/2016]

June 2016

6/24/16 – Singularity Hub: The Tools of Change Are Here: What Will You Do With Them?
At the opening ceremony, the overarching call to action for the new GSP class was very clear. We’re living in the most connected and democratic time in history. We have more abundant access to information and technology than ever before. Now is the time to do something meaningful with it—we’re all in this world together. It’s a sentiment inspired in no small part by space exploration, an endeavor in which courageous pioneers using cutting-edge technologies look down on the whole Earth… Keynote speaker Dr. Dava Newman, deputy administrator of NASA and former aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT, spoke about progress in space exploration and NASA’s goals for the future. Newman showed off detailed (and now iconic) snapshots from the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, noted that the Juno mission is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July, and looked ahead to the James Webb Space Telescope, which will look further out into the universe than even Hubble. Of course, interplanetary travel has long been the domain of satellites and rovers, but Newman also outlined plans for human exploration beyond the Earth and Moon. She said NASA is planning a new rover on Mars by 2020 and boots on Mars by 2030… Throughout Newman’s talk, she repeated the phrase, “We’re all in this together.” And Kurzweil agreed. More and more of us can access the tools of change, and with them society is ready to step beyond the world’s barriers and boundaries. [SingularityHub.com, 6/24/16]

6/17/16 – PC Magazine: How to Get to Mars: Q&A With NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman
For most of my lifetime, NASA was always at the center of space exploration. But that's changed a little these days because there's a (mostly) collegial competition amongst other nations' space agencies, but also there's a burgeoning private space industry. So, where does NASA fit in? That's why we have our guest, Dr. Dava Newman, who is the deputy administrator for NASA, to help answer some of these questions. If you have any questions about space, about space exploration, about where we are going, leave them in the comments. Social Pete will take a look and will read them out loud later in the show. [pcmag.com, 6/17/16]

6/15/16 – USA Today: More female leaders in science and tech urged
If the USA wants to attract more young women into advanced math and sciences, two top federal officials said Wednesday, the first step is to acknowledge that, well, Houston, we have a problem. Appearing at NASA headquarters as part of a “United State of Women” Summit, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman noted that fewer than one-third of the agency’s scientists, and just over one-fifth of its engineers, are women. “It’s atrocious,” she said. “So we have to call it what it is.” [usatoday.com, 6/15/16]

6/15/16 – United Nations Radio: People on Mars "We must afford it" says US space chief
Putting people on Mars sometime in the 2030s is something the planet simply "must afford" for the sake of all the benefits it will bring. That's the view of Dava Newman, who is the Deputy Administrator of the US Space Administration, NASA. She gave a special presentation this week to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which is taking place in Vienna, Austria, under the auspices of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, UNOOSA. Matthew Wells asked NASA's number-two what the main theme of her presentation had been to the gathering of 77 nations, on the final frontier. [unmultimedia.org, 6/15/16]

6/14/16 – Kurier (Austria): NASA-Vizechefin: Die Hürden auf dem Weg zum Mars
Sechs Menschen stehen in einem engen Aufzug, mittendrin eine zierliche Amerikanerin: "Ladys, das hier ist Luxus, in einer Raumkapsel ist es noch viel enger." Dava Newman muss es wissen – die stellvertretende Leiterin  der US-Raumfahrtorganisation NASA ist für Planung und strategische Ausrichtung der Behörde zuständig und forschte zuvor als MIT-Professorin an den Bewegungsabläufen von Astronauten. Bei einem Vortrag im Naturhistorischen Museum Wien erzählte sie von den nächsten Schritten der Mission Richtung Mars. Dabei ließ sie keine Zweifel daran, dass bald die ersten Stiefelabdrücke im roten Sand zu sehen sein werden. [Kurier.at, 6/14/16]

6/14/16 – El Dia (Spain): EEUU pretende crear oxigeno en Marte y desarrollar un propulsor electro-solar
EEUU confía en que en 2020 pueda crear oxígeno artificial en Marte con un experimento del robot explorador que sustituya al Curiosity y está investigando un motor de propulsión solar para viajar por el espacio profundo. Estos fueron dos de los aspectos sobre la futura misión de EEUU a Marte que la administradora adjunta de la NASA, Dava Newman, explicó en un encuentro con periodistas en Viena, donde asiste a una reunión de la Oficina de Naciones Unidas para el Espacio Exterior. [eldia.es, 6/14/16]

6/3/16: Ashland Daily Press (Wisconsin): Washburn students set to return to D.C.
In April, these five students planted carrots, beans and lettuce next to the First Lady and students from Cortez, Colo.; and New Orleans. The students also met NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and Astronaut Cady Coleman. For Borchers, meeting Coleman was “unbelievable.” “I really liked it because I’m really into science and want to work for NASA when I grow up, ” Borchers explained. [Ashland Daily Press, 6/3/16]

6/2/16 – Bild (Germany): Auch Nasa-Vize verspricht Mars-Landung
Auch Nasa-Vize verspricht Mars-Landung Am FU-Campus in Lankwitz hielt Dava Newman, Vize-Chefin der Nasa, aktuell einen Vortrag über bemannte Mars-Missionen. [bild.de, 6/2/16]

May 2016

5/17/16 – Slate/Future Tense: Why Does It Still Take Five Hours to Fly Cross-Country?! A Future Tense Event Recap.
Greg Zacharias, chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force, joined NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman in conversation with moderator James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic, to discuss the historic role the Air Force and NASA have played in driving the research and investment that gets adopted by the private sector and creates jobs in the U.S. economy. In February, NASA announced the arrival of a new era of cleaner, quieter, and faster aircraft. “New Aviation Horizons,” an initiative included in the president’s budget, will design, build and fly a series of X-planes, or experimental aircraft, during the next 10 years. Newman emphasized the importance of investing in such new initiatives to ensure the United States is a leader of this field. According to her, the public/private partnerships are stronger than they’ve ever been with the goal of “transition[ing] these technologies sooner, quicker, and cheaper” into commercial markets. [Slate, 5/17/16]

5/5/16 – Tech Insider: This is NASA's audacious plan to land humans on Mars within your lifetime
In sharp contrast to the cynical outlook that politicians, lobbyists, and reporters generally have about space travel in this city, the tone inside the Smithsonian's Future Is Here Festival on April 24 was unabashedly optimistic. There, NASA officials shared their detailed plans to land humans on Mars as soon as 15 years from now. The space agency has mulled launching a crewed Mars mission for decades. In fact, President Kennedy originally wanted astronauts to visit the Red Planet instead of the moon. But the space agency seems serious this time. President Obama challenged NASA to get astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. And while other presidents have done the same since the Apollo missions returned from the moon, NASA says that it's finally ready for its Mars shot. [techinsider.io, 5/5/16]

May 2016 – Smithsonian Magazine: Inside the Grand Plan to Send Humans to Mars
Dava Newman’s light blue eyes gleam as she regards a model of the most powerful rocket ever to come off a NASA drawing board. She places it on the coffee table in her stately sun-filled office at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Orion’s this little part on the top. All the rest is the heavy lift launch system,” she adds with a chuckle. The 18-inch-tall white plastic spacecraft model looks like something you might find in a hobby store, but it embodies the nation’s greatest ambitions: Orion is the capsule that, if all goes according to plan, will take four people to Mars in the 2030s. It sits on a massive new rocket, known formally as the Space Launch System. In its initial iteration, the SLS will be 322 feet tall and 15 percent more powerful than the Saturn V rocket, which powered the Apollo missions to the Moon. [Smithsonian Magazine, May 2016]

April 2016

4/27/16 – Popular Science: NASA Says It Will Help SpaceX With Mars 2018 Mission
According to a blog post today from NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, NASA has agreed to provide technical support to SpaceX's mission, in exchange for data about the spacecraft's entry into the Martian atmosphere, descent, and landing… he agency's agreement with SpaceX, on the other hand, is completely free, based purely on the exchange of information. Utilizing SpaceX for a landing strategy is a smart move, financially, and the space agency is billing it as a partnership. "[G]one are the days of the 'space race' when the dominant theme was that of various nations racing against each other," writes Newman. "Instead, we’re increasingly running together." [Popular Science, 4/27/16]

4/27/16 – Inverse: NASA Has a Good Reason to Be "Particularly Excited" About SpaceX's Mars Mission
On the heels of today’s big announcement that SpaceX will attempt to make it to Mars by 2018, NASA has quietly reminded everyone that it too is playing a part in getting us to the Red Planet. In a post on NASA’s blog — yes, the federal agency still blogs — deputy administrator Dava Newman writes that this new SpaceX venture is a partnership between the space exploring enterprises. “Among the many exciting things we’re doing with American businesses, we’re particularly excited about an upcoming SpaceX project that would build upon a current ‘no-exchange-of-funds’ agreement we have with the company,” writes Newman. [Inverse, 4/27/16]

4/26/16 – Smithsonian.com: The Future Is Here Festival Considers Extraterrestrial Life and the Essence of Humanity
A variety of National Aeronautics and Space Administration representatives, including Dava Newman, NASA’s deputy administrator, discussed everything from Hollywood depictions of space exploration to augmented and virtual reality. NASA’s mission is “off the Earth, for the Earth,” Newman said. She stressed that everything that NASA does, particularly when it comes to areas that are quite far from Earth, relates back to what is best for people on Earth. So it's off the planet, but it's all for the benefit of the planet. Jim Green, who directs NASA’s planetary science division, spoke highly of art’s capacity to impact the real-life space program. [Smithsonian.com, 4/26/16]

4/25/16 – Inflection Point: Dr. Dava Newman, Deputy Administrator of NASA
Dr. Dava Newman has a Ph.D. In Aerospace Biomedical Engineering from MIT, where as a professor she shaved 240 pounds off the space suit. And now at NASA, her goal is to usher in the Journey to Mars. Will this next mission be one giant step for women...And a giant leap for womankind? [inflectionpointradio.org, 4/25/16]

4/25/16 – Women in the World/New York Times: With her sights set on Mars, NASA’s Dava Newman knows the sky is not the limit
She’s an explorer by nature who’s circumnavigated the globe by sailboat, flown multiple spaceflight experiments, and designed a pioneering skintight ‘BioSuit’ set to transform the way astronauts move without gravity. And now Dava Newman, the first woman scientist-engineer to be named NASA Deputy Administrator — the second most senior job at the $19 billion budget agency — is shooting for Mars. [nytlive.nytimes.com, 4/25/16]

4/12/16 – The Hoya: OWN IT Summit Looks to Empower
Deputy Administrator of NASA Dava Newman said in “The Future of Science and Technology” panel that young women interested in following her path into a STEM field should be comfortable with failure. According to Newman, learning how to fail correctly is an important part in learning to succeed later. “When you’re designing and building, just try, try, try,” Newman said. “Just try a whole bunch of crazy concepts, the crazier the better, and then somehow be comfortable with failure. Because if we fail here, then next time we’re going to do it better.” [The Hoya, 4/12/16]

4/8/16 – Space.com: Space-Bound Veggies Will Also Sprout in White House Garden
A new batch of green-vegetable seeds launched to the International Space Station Friday (April 8) as part of an experiment to grow produce in space. Meanwhile, seeds from the same lot are taking root in Michelle Obama's White House kitchen garden. The seeds are part of Veg-03, the third crop of plants to be grown in the station's Vegetable Production System (Veggie). This go-round, scientists are attempting to grow a variety of Chinese cabbage called Tokyo Bekana. The seeds launched to the station on a SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle.  On April 5, Michelle Obama planted batches of the Chinese cabbage seeds, as well as red romaine lettuce (a previous space station crop) in the White House garden. The First Lady was joined by a group of students, as well as Gioia Massa, the science team lead for the Veg-03 experiment; NASA astronaut Cady Coleman; and NASA Associate Administrator Dava Newman. [Space.com, 4/8/16]

• March 2016

  3/12/16 – Great Falls Tribune (Montana): Dava Newman; Mission to Mars
  Dava Newman; Mission to Mars NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman visits with grade school at the Exploration Works Museum in Helena on March 12  [greatfallstribune.com, 3/12/16]

  3/8/16 – KTVQ (Montana): NASA deputy Dava Newman inspires hometown Helena students
  Dr. Dava Newman, a Helena native, is what you might call a space fanatic. Newman launched her intergalactic career at Capital High School, graduating in 1982. The aerospace engineer eventually landed a job with NASA where she currently serves as the deputy administrator. “I learned a lot of teamwork being on sports teams that was important because now as an engineer, an aerospace engineer, I work in teams all the time,” she said.Hundreds of Helena students listened and asked questions Monday as Newman presented what NASA is striving to achieve in the coming decades. One of NASA's most ambitious goals to date involves the “Red Planet.” [ktvq.com, 3/8/16]

  February 2016

  2/8/16 – Expresso (Portugal): As mulheres vêm de Vénus mas vão mandar em Marte
  Uma mulher, uma flor, uma nave espacial, um planeta. Esta não é uma aventura de ficção científica, é a história real da maior expedição espacial que a Humanidade tem pela frente este século. Há um “Starman” à espera no céu para nos deslumbrar a todos, como cantava David Bowie? Não. Provavelmente será uma Starwoman [Express.sapo.pt, 2/8/16]

  January 2016

  1/14/16 – WMFE 90.7 (Orlando): NASA’s Big Rocket Faces Uncertain Future
  NASA’s Space Launch System is the agency’s next big rocket, slated to take astronauts into deep space. But budget concerns and a presidential election have some fearing for the program. 90.7’s Brendan Byrne spoke with Crytal Chavez about the rocket’s future… CHAVEZ: You mentioned commercial space, but this SLS rocket is a NASA program. What role to private companies play in this? BYRNE: Well, they could be the competition. One way SLS could pay for itself is launching payloads for commercial companies or the military. But SpaceX recently demonstrated it could land a booster and. And they’re developing their own heavy lift rocket – called Falcon Heavy — that will reuse its boosters and that could lower the cost – which means they could launch into deep space for a better price. I spoke with NASA’s Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. She’s said she’s not concerned with competition. DAVA NEWMAN: No one can do heavy lift right now. We’re making all the developments and NASA is the only one who has done heavy lift before, excluding other international folks, and it’s all good. BYRNE: Newman says commercial companies are partners, not competitors. SpaceX aims to demonstrate the Falcon Heavy this spring. [WMFE, 1/14/16]

  1/6/16 – Glamour Magazine: Would You Go to Mars? Meet the Four Women Astronauts Who Can’t Wait to Go
  In first grade Jessica Meir made a drawing of herself standing on the moon. Turns out she underestimated her own ambition: Today, at 38, Meir could become the first human to touch down on an even farther destination: Mars. A next step for man? Yes, and a giant leap for womankind. The mission itself is at least 15 years away—it will take that long to build and test every last piece of equipment. But it's already the most hotly anticipated space-exploration effort ever. Governments around the world—in China, Europe, and Russia—have plans in the works to at least land robots on Mars, while in the U.S., private companies like SpaceX are partnering with NASA on a human mission and plotting their own commercial trips. And unlike the 1960s race to the moon, this time women are playing pivotal roles—building rockets, designing space suits, and controlling the remote rovers that are already sending momentous insights back from Mars. A human landing will not, to put it mildly, be easy. The shortest route to our planetary neighbor is 35 million miles. Just getting there will take six to nine months; a round-trip, two to three years. "This will be the longest, farthest, and most ambitious space-­exploration mission in history," says Dava Newman, Ph.D., NASA's deputy administrator. [Glamour, 1/6/16]

  December 2015

  12/15/15 – CBS News: NASA seeking exceptional applicants to become astronauts
  NASA is planning a human mission to Mars for the 2030's. And this week, the agency opened its application process for the next class of space travelers. "Going to Mars, a human journey to Mars, I think absolutely is a renaissance. I think we've captivated not just the U.S. but the world," said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. Newman hopes a record-breaking number of qualified Americans apply to NASA's astronaut class of 2017. "The background is really important," Newman said. "How are people as leaders? How are they in a team? We have a really rigorous selection board." Applicants must be a U.S. citizen with a bachelor's degree in engineering, biological or physical science or mathematics. They also should have three years of relevant experience, or at least 1,000 hours piloting a jet. The physical exam is another hurdle. "It takes an extraordinary person," Newman said. In addition to the intellectual and physical qualifications, the ideal candidate must also have operational skills. [CBS News, 12/15/15]

  12/14/15 – ABC (Spain): Encontraremos evidencias de vida en Marte durante la próxima década
  Es la segunda persona más poderosa de la NASA y junto a Charles Bolden, el administrador general, es directamente responsable de todas las decisiones, actividades y planes presentes y futuros de la agencia espacial más importante del mundo. Dava Newman tiene muy claro que el próximo gran objetivo es colocar seres humanos en Marte, algo que se conseguirá en la década de 2030. Todos los esfuerzos de la agencia, en efecto, apuntan hoy al Planeta Rojo. Científica y aventurera, Newman ha trabajado en el diseño de nuevos trajes espaciales para las primeras tripulaciones que viajen a Marte; y ha dado la vuelta al mundo, junto a su marido, en un velero. Los viajes espaciales, asegura, se parecen mucho a las largas travesías oceánicas. Dava Newman pasó fugazmente por Madrid y concedió, en exclusiva, esta entrevista a ABC. [ABC.es, 12/14/15]

  12/15/15 – Baltimore Sun: Howard Students Gain Dedicated Space in Columbia for Robotics Testing
  Howard County middle and high school robotics teams now have access to 18,000 square feet of indoor space in Columbia to test the robots they create for regional and national competitions… The association built out the extra space in its headquarters to serve as a testing ground for robots. NASA contributed a practice field made up of a special floor to support the movements of larger robots and plastic shields that protect the students who control the robots. Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and several area FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, robotics teams attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the STEM Education Center on Friday afternoon. [The Baltimore Sun, 12/15/15]

   

  November 2015

  11/26/15 – Formiche.net: Ecco come arriveremo su Mart. Parla Dava Newman (Nasa)
  Prima Giove, poi Marte. Sono queste le prossime tappe di un viaggio che non conosce soste e continua a riservare sorprese, quello della razza umana tra le stelle. Qual è lo stato della collaborazione tra Stati Uniti e Italia in questo settore? Quali i numeri di questa partnership? E quali nuove conquiste attendono la Terra nello spazio? Sono alcuni degli aspetti analizzati in una conversazione di Formiche.net con Dava Newman, vice amministratore dell’agenzia spaziale americana e professore di aeronautica, astronautica e ingegneria dei sistemi al Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [Formiche.net, 11/26/15]

  11/25/15 – Tested.com: Adam Savage Interviews NASA’s Dava Newman
  Adam Savage sits down with Dava Newman, Deputy Administrator of NASA, to talk about Mars, the need of exploration, and of course, spacesuits. This episode of The Talking Room was recorded in front of a live audience at our live show in San Francisco! [Tested.com, 11/25/15]

  11/25/15: Rai News (Italy): La Numero 2 della NASA a RaiNews.it: “Siamo in Viaggo Verso Marte, con l’aiuto dell’Italia”
  Il percorso insieme prevede varie tappe e una destinazione ancora lontana, ma di grande fascino: Marte. Per arrivare sul Pianeta Rosso negli anni ’30, la Nasa sta lavorando con diversi compagni di viaggio. In prima linea c’è anche l’Italia. Una collaborazione che ha condotto a Roma la numero due dell’ente spaziale statunitense, il vice-amministratore Dava Newman, che ha incontrato i vertici dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana e il ministro dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Stefania Giannini. [rainew.it, 11/25/15]

  11/18/15 – SpaceNews: When the White House Rang, Dava Newman Thought it was a Prank
  Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thought someone might be playing a practical joke when the White House called asking if she was interested in serving as NASA’s deputy administrator. She soon figured out that the call was genuine, and confirmed she was interested in the job. That started a long nomination and confirmation process that culminated with a unanimous vote by the Senate in April. Now on the job for six months, Newman is focused on several key issues. First and foremost is NASA’s long-term plans to send humans to Mars, something she was already familiar with from her role supporting a recent National Academies study on human spaceflight that was, in some respects, critical of NASA’s plans. Technology development and education and public outreach are also priorities for her, a natural extension of her academic background. Newman spoke recently with SpaceNews senior staff writer Jeff Foust at her office at NASA Headquarters. [SpaceNews, 11/18/15]

  11/17/15 – SpaceFlight Insider: NASA’s Deputy Administrator Discusses Agency’s Road-Map to Mars
  NASA has posted stunning imagery of astronauts exploring the planet Mars for some time. In fact, during the agency’s “glory days” throughout the Apollo Program, the agency looked to field a space station – to serve as a way-station to the Red Planet. Now? NASA is consistently saying it plans to send crews to Mars. Does it plan to do so alone? What role will commercial firms play? NASA’s Deputy Administrator, Dava Newman, answered these questions and more in an exclusive interview with SpaceFlight Insider. [SpaceFlight Insider, 11/17/15]

  11/7/15 – Inquiring Minds: Dava Newman - The Future of Space Exploration
  Dava Newman is the Deputy Administrator of NASA. On the show this week we talked to her about the future of space exploration. [Inquiring Minds, 11/7/15]

   

  October 2015

  10/24/15 – Pasadena Now: Planetary Society Dedicates Pasadena Headquarters, CEO Bill Nye Focuses on a Mission to Mars
  “We want to have humans orbiting Mars in 2033,” said Bill Nye, American science educator popularly known as ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy.’ Nye is CEO of The Planetary Society and Saturday morning at the dedication of their new headquarters in Pasadena Nye spoke about “getting humans in orbit around Mars.” … Later Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the Planetary Society will be celebrating their 35th anniversary, featuring Andy Weir, author of the book “The Martian” (blockbuster film in theaters now); actors from Star Trek, including Nichelle Nichols, Robert Picardo, and Jeri Ryan; NASA Deputy Administrator, Dr. Dava Newman; NASA scientist Amy Mainzer; and Planetary Society personalities Emily Lakdawalla, Jim Bell, Bruce Betts, Mat Kaplan, Casey Dreier, and Jennifer Vaughn. [Pasadena Now, 10/24/15]

  10/7/15 – USDA Press Blog Post: Planting the Seeds for Tomorrow’s STEAM Leaders
  Did you know that NASA has a mini veggie farm at the International Space Station that grows lettuce? Every day, ground-breaking scientific research is taking place to improve food production practices in order to feed people on Earth and in space. Earlier this week in USDA’s People’s Garden, local 4-H and FFA students gathered to plant sister seeds to lettuce grown on the International Space Station, which will be harvested in about a month. By getting their hands dirty, students were able to ask questions about what it takes to grow food under a variety of conditions. This is particularly important as our nation’s farmers and ranchers look to feed a growing world population. The students heard from astronaut Cady Colman about how important it is to keep learning and exploring because the possibilities are out of this world.  And USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden joined NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman to expand a Memorandum of Understanding that gives our students the tools they need from both USDA and NASA to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and agriculture. [USDA.gov, 10/7/15]

   

  10/3/15 – Quirks and Quarks (CBS): NASA’s Mission to Mars
  This week, with the news full of stories of water on Mars, and a new Hollywood adventure movie set on the Red Planet, we turn our eyes to the fourth rock from the Sun, to find out how and when we might put humans on the Red Planet for real. NASA's plan is the steady development of the technologies we'll need to get there, and leading that effort is the new Deputy Administrator and second-in-command of NASA, Dr. Dava Newman. Dr. Newman joined NASA from her position as Apollo Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, where she'd worked on various aspects of space flight for more than two decades. Her best known work is on innovative space suits, well "suited" for work on the Martian surface. Dr. Newman is enthusiastic and optimistic about NASA's efforts, which will build on its successful robotic missions with the development of new heavy lift rockets, new capsules, space habitats and the myriad of other technologies we'll need to get to Mars. [CBC.ca, 10/3/15]

   

  September 2015

  9/30/15 – Science Friday: 10 Questions with Dava Newman, the new deputy NASA administrator
  “Oh yeah!” That was Dava Newman’s reaction when asked if she’d be willing to jet off to Mars. The best way to describe the aerospace engineer, who's currently on leave from a professorship at MIT, is as an explorer. From sea (she's an avid sailor) to space, Newman is enthusiastic about breaching new frontiers. Known as the creator of the skintight Biosuit concept, she’s been a prominent leader in thinking creatively about future space exploration — so much so that President Barack Obama tapped her to be the new deputy administrator at NASA, a post she was sworn into this past May. Newman has also been an avid advocate for STEM outreach, even preferring to use the acronym STEAMD in recent talks — the added A standing for “arts” and the D for “design.” “I do include the arts; I think it's critically important,” she says. “I need to recruit every young girl and boy out there, and it helps to be very inclusive.” Newman speaks about her interests, NASA’s vision for the future, and her thoughts on exploring the great beyond. [Science Friday, 9/30/15]

  9/28/15 – National Endowment for the Arts Web Story: My Art Story by Charles Bolden and Dava Newman, NASA
  Charles Bolden and Dava Newman of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) talk about the importance of the arts in their lives and wish the National Endowment for the Arts a happy 50th anniversary. [arts.gov, 9/28/15]

  9/24/15 – The Verge: How Did You Get That Job: Deputy Administrator of NASA
  Charles Bolden is, in many ways, the face of NASA. As the administrator of the agency, he appears at most of its major events, and has recently led a very public fight to keep NASA's funding at its president-approved levels.  But a new face of the agency has been making appearances in the last few months: Dr. Dava Newman, NASA's new deputy administrator. She was first appointed to the position by Barack Obama in November of last year, and then again in January of 2015 (more on that later), and was officially confirmed in April of this year. Newman rose to prominence in the space industry with the BioSuit, which was a complete rethinking of how spacesuits work and look. She spent 12 years working on this so-called "second skin" suit, and it could someday allow astronauts much better freedom of movement — which is one of the biggest limiting factors when it comes to human space exploration. Before her appointment to the post of deputy administrator, Newman was a professor at MIT, where she earned three degrees, and she's been studying aerospace engineering since her undergraduate days at Notre Dame. But everything really began when, as a teenager in Helena, Montana, Newman decided to start her own business. [The Verge, 9/2/15]

  9/23/15 – Popular Science: How We’ll Get People to Mars in One Piece
  Aerospace engineer Dava Newman has devoted her career to figuring out how we might live in space—suspending subjects from the rafters of her MIT lab to study reduced gravity and designing a flexible, self-mending space suit. As NASA’s new deputy director, she is now tasked with the planning and policy that will make greater human space exploration possible. That means leading the agency’s 18,000 employees and 40,000 contractors toward a successful crewed mission to Mars by the 2030s. [Popular Science, 9/23/15]

  9/21/15 – Christian Science Monitor: How Soon Will We Get To Mars?
  Fiction and reality are intertwining, as humanity edges closer to launching a manned mission to Mars. Before the International Space Station crew enjoyed their advanced screening of "The Martian," a film about an astronaut stranded on Mars, the story’s novelist Andy Weir attended a NASA event in which administrator Charles Bolden said we are now closer than ever to setting foot on the Red Planet… Some preliminary work will be conducted by NASA’s next Mars Rover, to be launched in 2020. The rover will carry the Mars Oxygen ISRU experiment, or MOXIE, which turns carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into breathable oxygen and carbon monoxide. In addition to allowing humans on Mars to breathe, the oxygen could also be used as fuel for the flight home. “We’re going to make oxygen on another planet – the first time ever to make oxygen on another planet,” said NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman. "These experiments – they’re real, they’re here." [Christian Science Monitor, 9/21/15]

  9/21/15 – Huffington Post: Man On Mars? NASA Says It's Happening -- And Soon
  We're going to Mars -- and we're going in the not-too-distant future. NASA says preparations for a manned mission to the Red Planet are proceeding as planned, with humans expected to set foot on Mars in the 2030s… The next Mars rover, planned for a 2020 launch, will carry the Mars Oxygen ISRU experiment. MOXIE, as it’s known, will take carbon dioxide out of the thin Martian atmosphere and produce oxygen, the space agency said.  If it can do so successfully, humans will have oxygen to breathe and rockets will be able to use that oxygen to help power the return trip home. “We’re going to make oxygen on another planet -- the first time ever to make oxygen on another planet,” said NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman, according to The Space Reporter. "These experiments -- they’re real, they’re here." [Huffington Post, 9/21/15]

  9/18/15 – Space.com: A Manned Mission to Mars Is Closer to Reality Than Ever: NASA Chief
  NASA is closer to putting boots on Mars than it's ever been before, the space agency's chief says. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander, said he envisioned becoming the first person to explore Mars when he checked in for astronaut training at Houston's Johnson Space Center in 1980… NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, also took part in the discussion, which was webcast live on NASA TV. So did a number of NASA researchers, as well as Andy Weir, author of the sci-fi novel "The Martian," which has been made into a movie starring Matt Damon that opens on Oct. 2… Newman also mentioned the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), one of seven science instruments that NASA's next Mars rover will carry toward the Red Planet when it blasts off in 2020. MOXIE will pull carbon dioxide from the thin Martian atmosphere and turn it into pure oxygen and carbon monoxide, demonstrating technology that could keep settlers alive on the Red Planet — and help them blast off the surface when it's time to go home. (Oxygen can be used as an oxidizer, helping to burn rocket fuel.)   "We're going to make oxygen on another planet — the first time ever to make oxygen on another planet," Newman said. "These experiments — they're real, they're here." [Space.com, 9/18/15]

  9/16/15 – Great Falls Tribune: Montana to Mars: Newman guides NASA effort
  Each great adventure story includes a journey. Dava Newman is preparing for perhaps the greatest journey in human history — a manned mission to Mars. “Yes, we are going to Mars.” Newman says it with conviction. Now entering her fourth month as deputy administrator of NASA, the Helena native speaks with the authority of a biomedical engineer who has been briefed by scientists at every major NASA research center in the United States. “It’s really been fantastic to see what’s going on right now at NASA,” Newman said of her summer-long tour of space agency locals. “It’s given me the best perspective on our space launch system work, everything from the research going on to the International Space Station.” [Great Falls Tribune, 9/16/15]

  9/14/15 – KBZK.com (Bozeman): High Tech job summit at MSU highlights growth
  Montana Senator Steve Daines started the Montana High Tech Summit at Montana State University this morning by introducing some of the 40 people who will speak. Keynote speakers include Dr. Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel, Doug Burgum, former CEO of Great Plains Software, which was purchased by Microsoft, Michael Goguen, Managing Partner of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Will Lansing, CEO of FICO and former Right Now Technologies Board member, Dr. Dava Newman, Deputy Administrator for NASA, and Matt Rose, Chairman, BNSF Railway Company… Dr. Dava Newman of NASA is a Montana native and followed Gianforte in the lineup. According to Newman, NASA believes strongly in Montana and believes it should be a world-class technology hub. She said NASA invests $8 million a year in Montana. Newman told the audience that she is an engineer and rocket scientist - she remembers as she watched Apollo from her home in Helena when she was five years old. Now she gets to work with Buzz Aldrin, one of the astronauts who walked on the moon. Nature was a big inspiration for her in Montana, according to Newman.  “A place to dream, a place to see what nature has already created,” she said. “My career really started in the mountains of Montana.” Since then she invented a new space suit for NASA and when she taught at MIT she challenged students to think ten years in advance. Newman pointed out there were nine astronauts on the International Space Station last week. She says this is a first step on the journey to Mars. Newman is now working on an exercise suit for astronauts who lose muscle and bone mass in space. [KBZK.com, 9/14/15]

   

  August 2015

  8/10/15 – AL.com: New NASA Deputy Administrator visits Marshall Space Flight Center
  NASA's Deputy Administrator Dava Newman got to see NASA's newest toy, a 21-foot composite-laying robot, on her visit the Marshall Space Center on Thursday. Newman visited the Marshall Space Center's Composites Technology Center as part of her tour of NASA facilities across the country. She started her job as deputy administrator on May 15 after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. This was a return trip to Marshall for Newman – she conducted her first space flight experiment at the center in the 90s. "Now fast forward, there is so much new and exciting work [happening at Marshall,]" Newman said. Newman said the new composite-laying robot will help NASA in its mission to develop new technologies. "If NASA can push and lead in these technological developments then the changes of how we build flight systems go right into industry," Newman said. "It can go from government back into industry." The new robot can create composite materials out of carbon-fiber strands an order of magnitude faster than the older systems which will allow for the development of new construction techniques to make advance composite materials cheaper, according to materials engineer Justin Jackson. "For every ounce we can shave off a launch vehicle, we get to carry more payload," Newman said. Newman said technology and innovation are what enable NASA to move forward on its new missions and development of the new Space Launch System. "I can't wait until SLS launches, it'll blow our socks off," Newman said. [AL.com, 8/7/15]

  8/2/15 – TechCrunch: Startups Rocket to the Front of the Space Race
  Capitalizing on the falling cost of launch services and the miniaturization of satellites, a new breed of startups are gearing up for the space race under the moniker of NewSpace. At a recent conference in San Jose, Calif., leading figures in this NewSpace movement (a term used to describe the startups that stand in the shadows of space industry giants such as Boeing and Lockheed-Martin) discussed their novel approaches to spaceflight and exploration and discovery. While many in NewSpace have their sights set on lofty dreams of planetary exploration or asteroid mining, the first steps to getting off the planet are completely down to Earth. NewSpace is clearly a decade old but remains a nascent industry. The first day keynote speaker was the newly appointed deputy administrator of that National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dava Newman (known for her work at MIT developing next generation agile, light-weight spacesuits). Newman kicked off a day of presentations that placed NewSpace in the framework of a space exploration industry which is now 50 plus years beyond Sputnik — humanity’s first satellite. [TechCrunch.com, 8/2/15]
                                                                                          

  July 2015

  7/27/15 – Boston.com: Meet the Badass Woman Who Will Put Humans on Mars
  Since Dava Newman left her MIT teaching position in May to become deputy administrator of NASA (the agency’s second-in-command), things have been ‘a little hectic,’ she told Boston.com. That’s understandable. It’s been a bumpy summer. In June, NASA failed for the third time on their mission to send supplies to astronauts at the International Space Station. But in July, a NASA spacecraft made history when it passed Pluto, delivering stunning images of the dwarf planet and making the U.S. the only country to visit every planet, current and former, in the solar system… Three months peppered with crushing obstacles, momentous firsts, and astounding discoveries would overwhelm most people starting a new job. Fortunately, Newman is not most people… Newman has accomplished a lot in her career, but she’s looking forward. Her sight is set on Mars. ‘It couldn’t be a more exciting time,’ Newman said, barely able to conceal her enthusiasm as she described one of her main goals as NASA’s new deputy administrator: The three-phased mission that will result in the colonization of a planet 140 million miles away.” [Boston.com, 7/27/15]

  7/17/15 – Farms.com: USDA and NASA Expand Their Partnership
  The distance between Earth’s surface and outer space is approximately 100km (62 miles) but the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is doing their part to bridge that gap. Through an expanded partnership, NASA and the USDA will work together and attempt to better predict wildfires and monitor drought, all while inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in agriculture, science and other fields… Among the initiatives are possible soil moisture maps for California that when used, could improve weather forecasting, water availability and provide early-drought warnings to farmers. ‘There are many areas where NASA and USDA have overlapping interests,’ said NASA's Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. ‘We can now better coordinate and build on the resources of both NASA and the USDA to help learn more about our planet's vital resources and inspire the next generation to become better stewards of our planet.’” [Farms.com, 7/17/15]

   

  7/17/15 – Farm Futures: NASA, USDA Collaborate on Drought-Forecasting Data Collection
  “At NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., Thursday, USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden and NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman signed a memorandum of understanding to bring the two organizations closer together in research and data sharing… Among other things, the agreement will expand cooperation on space-borne remote sensing efforts to gather soil moisture data. One potential outcome of the expanded partnership between USDA and NASA could be using satellite data to create a series of soil moisture maps for California that could be used to improve weather and water availability forecasting and provide a drought early-warning system to producers, particularly in California.” [Farm Futures, 7/17/15]

  7/16/15 – USDA Press Release: USDA and NASA Expand Innovative Partnership to Better Predict Wildfires, Monitor Drought from Space
  Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden and NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman today announced an expanded partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed to better protect America's working lands, predict and prevent natural disasters, and inspire young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and agriculture. ‘Space is a unique laboratory that can be a gateway to solving some of the greatest agricultural challenges of our time,’ says Deputy Secretary Harden. ‘This partnership is a powerful opportunity for USDA and NASA to yield new tools and techniques to help farmers and ranchers as they deal with the ongoing impacts of climate change and drought. Perhaps most importantly, this partnership will expose more young people to the power of science and innovation to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges.’ ‘There are many areas where NASA and USDA have overlapping interests,’ said NASA's Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. ‘We can now better coordinate and build on the resources of both NASA and the USDA to help learn more about our planet's vital resources and inspire the next generation to become better stewards of our planet.’” [USDA.gov, 7/16/15]

  7/14/15 –ExecutiveGov: NASA, Agriculture Department to Forge Research Alliance
  “NASA and the Agriculture Department are set to ink an interagency research agreement on Earth science and agriculture. The partnership is meant to establish a collaboration framework in Earth science research, technology, agricultural management and agricultural application of science data, models and technology, NASA said Monday. NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden will hold a media briefing on Thursday at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, after they sign the agreement. Both agencies intend for the alliance to jointly work on education and communication activities and promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers among the youth.” [ExecutiveGov, 7/14/15]

  7/14/15 – ABC Fox Montana: Helena Native Sworn-In as NASA Deputy Administrator
  A Helena native is sworn in as the Deputy Administrator of NASA. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Dr. Dava Newman to the position back in April. On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Steve Daines spoke at her ceremonial swearing in. He calls Dr. Newman an inspiration for countless of young Montanans who are excited about not only space exploration, but also science, technology, engineering and math. Newman is a graduate of C.R. Anderson Middle School and Capital High School in Helena. [ABC Fox Montana, 7/14/15]

  7/14/15 – Senator Tester Press Release: Montana Native Sworn in as Administrator at NASA
  “Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement after joining Montana native Dr. Dava Newman at her swearing-in ceremony as Deputy Administrator at NASA: ‘As a Montana native, Dr. Newman was taught to enjoy the wonders of nature, including our Big Sky and the stars that inhabit it. Montana is behind her as she takes on her new role at NASA and inspires children and teenagers, especially young girls, across the country to look up to the stars like she did.’ Dr. Dava Newman was born and raised in Helena, Montana. Before taking over as NASA's Deputy Administrator she served as a professor of astronautics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” [Tester.Senate.gov, 7/14/15]

  7/14/15 – Senator Daines Press Release: Daines Speaks at Helena Native Newman’s Swearing-In as NASA Deputy Administrator
  “Senator Steve Daines today spoke at the ceremonial swearing-in of Helena native Dr. Dava Newman as the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Deputy Administrator. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Newman on April 27, 2015. ‘Dr. Newman is inspiration for countless of young Montanans who are excited about not only space exploration, but also science, technology, engineering and math,’ Daines stated. ‘I have no doubt that Dr. Newman will be a dedicated and tireless public servant who will continue to exemplify our state’s rich legacy of public service.’ Newman, a native of Helena, Montana, is a graduate of C.R. Anderson Middle School and Capital High School in Helena. Newman received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and her master’s and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She most recently served as professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT.” [Daines.Senate.gov, 7/14/15]

  7/9/15 – Radio Boston: Dava Newman Brings Her Optimism, Passion for Space from MIT to NASA
  “When she was a kid, Dava Newman wanted to be an astronaut. ‘I loved space,’ NASA’s new deputy administrator told us. ‘I was hugely influenced by the Apollo program. What it taught me was — I grew up in Montana, so for a young girl growing up in Montana, to dream. And space flight and exploration are just boundless, and I took that as a call to exploration.’ Dava Newman is a former professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, a job she took a leave from earlier this year to join NASA. She’s back in town for the International Space Station Research and Development Conference that’s being held in Boston, and she joined us to talk about Mars, space exploration and the challenges she sees as the second-in-command at NASA.” [Radio Boston, 4/27/15]

  7/3/15 – MTN News: Top NASA Administrator and Helena Native Dava Newman Talks About Montana, Mars, and Spacesuits
  “Dr. Dava Newman, a graduate of Capital High School in Helena, was confirmed in April 2015 by the U.S. Senate to be the new deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Newman has a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame. She also earned master's degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is currently a professor of Aeronautics, Astronautics and Engineering Systems. Newman talked to MTN News on Thursday about her success at NASA, and also about inspiring the next generation of Montanans to pursue their dreams.” [MTN News, 7/3/15]

   

  June 2015

  6/23/15 – MIT Technology Review: Suiting Up
  Establishing a human colony on Mars will require exceptional qualities in an explorer, not least of which are ingenuity, a collaborative spirit, and the iron will of a true pioneer. But it will also require a good suit. MIT’s Dava Newman says colonists will have to be “extreme athlete explorers”—always ready to hop on a rover, climb down a crevasse, or comb through a crater for potential resources. And such physical tasks would be extremely difficult to carry out while wearing traditional heavy, puffy space suits. Today’s suits, which use gas to create the pressure needed in zero gravity, haven’t evolved much since Buzz Aldrin, ScD ’63, and Neil Armstrong made their legendary moonwalk… For the next year and a half, Newman’s space-suit research will continue through her former students as she takes a leave of absence from MIT; last fall, President Obama nominated her to be NASA’s deputy administrator, the agency’s second in command. In April, the Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment. ‘Spending a couple years of my life very focused on positively impacting the future of space exploration—what a great opportunity,’ says Newman, who will oversee NASA’s international partnerships, including the collaboration managing the International Space Station. Newman hopes to significantly contribute to technology, innovation, and education to inspire future aerospace engineers. The agency’s long-term strategic plan, she says, includes sending humans to Mars.” [MIT Technology Review, 6/23/15]

  6/19/15 – Daily Press: NASA Tests Coating to Fight Bug Guts on Plane Wings
  “Who knew that keeping bug guts off airplanes could be a mission for NASA? But it turns out that insect "residue" splattering on the wings of big aircraft as they take off is a real problem looking for a serious solution… And on Thursday NASA, Boeing and the ecoDemonstrator were all on display in NASA Langley's hangar as preliminary results indicate the coatings can do the job just fine, potentially saving the airline industry a bundle in cumulative fuel costs… The ecoDemonstrator also tested out two other green aviation technologies: a ‘green diesel’ jet fuel and a new design for an aircraft's vertical tail that can reduce drag, allowing for smaller tail structures. ‘Just imagine if you can reduce that tail size — you would save a lot of mass and hence save a lot of weight and fuel,’ said Dava Newman, NASA's new deputy administrator. ‘It's much cheaper to fly.’” [Daily Press, 6/19/15]

   

  May 2015

  5/19/15 – Spaceflight Insider: Dava Newman Starts Work as Deputy Administrator
  “Dava Newman began her official duties as NASA’s new deputy administrator on Monday, May 18, at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The deputy administrator position has been vacant since Lori Garver left NASA in September 2013. Newman was nominated by President Obama in January, confirmed by the Senate in April, and sworn in on Friday, May 15. ‘I have known and admired Dava for several decades,’ said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. ‘Her talents and skills as an educator and technological innovator will bring a new energy to our NASA leadership team, and I’m ecstatic to have her on board.’ Newman is responsible to the NASA administrator for providing leadership, planning, and policy direction for the agency. Newman will perform duties delegated by the administrator and act for him in his absence. Newman is also responsible for representing NASA to the Office of the President, Congress, heads of government agencies and international organizations, and articulating the agency’s vision.” [Spaceflight Insider, 5/19/15]

   

  Confirmation – April 2015

  4/27/15 - The Hill: Senate Confirms NASA Deputy
  “Senators approved Dava Newman to be NASA's next deputy administrator on Monday. Senators voted 87-0 on the nomination. Thirteen senators missed the vote, which remained open for roughly an hour. Newman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was nominated in October of last year for the post. She was favorably reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation last month. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said ahead of the vote that Newman ‘is a testament to the quality of Montana's public education… [She] truly exemplifies our state's legacy of public service,’ he said. ‘I know she will lead with honor and is prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead.’” [The Hill, 4/27/15]

  4/27/15 - Independent Record: Senate Confirms Helena Native as Second in Command on NASA
  “The United States Senate voted Monday to appoint Helena native Dava Newman as deputy administrator of NASA. ‘It’s an enormous honor to serve at NASA in times when our country is extending humanity’s reach into space while strengthening American leadership here on Earth, and I look forward to starting this work soon,’ Newman said. Newman was nominated by President Barack Obama last October to fill the NASA position vacated in September 2013 by Lori Garver, who left to become general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association. In March, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously recommended that the Senate approve Newman’s appointment… Newman was appointed with 87 senators voting to confirm her appointment and none voting against. Both Sen. Jon Tester and Sen. Steve Daines were present and voted in favor of Newman’s appointment. Daines, who serves on the Senate committee that recommended Newman’s confirmation, spoke on the Senate floor prior to the vote and called her a ‘testament to the quality of Montana’s public education.’ … Newman said she’ll finish her work at MIT while waiting to be officially instated by the president. She added that as deputy administrator, she’ll be able to make a trip to Helena this summer.” [Independent Record, 4/27/15]

  • Republished by the Montana Standard.

  

  4/27/15 - Great Falls Tribune: Montana Native Confirmed to NASA Post
  “Montana native Dava Newman was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Monday to be deputy administrator at NASA. ‘Dava Newman will be a strong leader at NASA and play a major role in the future of engineering in this country. I thank her for her many years in the classroom inspiring young folks to launch a career in STEM. All Montanans can be proud of her great accomplishments,’ Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said in a news release. Newman is a graduate of Capital High School in Helena. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and her master's degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is currently a professor of Aeronautics and Engineering Systems… Newman is best known for research on form-fitting spacesuits that use mechanical counterpressure to provide greater freedom of motion for astronauts than conventional suits. Her research has focused on how humans can more effectively work in weightlessness and reduced gravity environments.” [Great Falls Tribune, 4/27/15]

  4/28/15 - ExecutiveGov: Senate Oks Dava Newman as NASA Deputy Administrator; Charles Bolden Comments
  “Dava Newman has received Senate confirmation for the role of deputy administrator at NASA via a unanimous vote held more than six months after President Barack Obama submitted her nomination, Space News reported Monday. Jeff Foust writes the NASA deputy administrator post has been vacant since September 2013, when Lori Garver left the space agency. ‘The strong bipartisan support Dr. Newman received in the Senate is a reflection of her well-earned reputation and renown as a global leader in science and technology research and policy,’ NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement… Newman is currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and specializes in spaceflight research. Bolden also noted her recent work in the development of a new lightweight spacesuit design.” [ExecutiveGov, 4/28/15]

  4/27/15 - Space News: Senate Confirms Newman as NASA Deputy Administrator
  “The U.S. Senate voted unanimously April 27 to confirm Dava Newman as NASA’s deputy administrator, more than six months after the university professor was nominated to the post. The Senate voted 87–0 to confirm Newman after a brief floor debate about the nomination. Only two senators spoke during the debate, both in favor of Newman’s nomination… The vote was welcomed by both Bolden and Newman. ‘I am personally ecstatic to welcome her aboard at such a busy and exciting time,’ Bolden said in a NASA statement issued shortly after the vote… In recent weeks, Bolden had made more of a public case for the Senate to confirm Newman. He mentioned the pending nomination at a March 12 hearing of the Senate Commerce space subcommittee, which Newman attended. He also told the NASA Advisory Council at an April 9 meeting that he planned to meet with the Senate’s Republican leadership to request a confirmation vote for Newman. Prior to the nomination, Newman was best known for her spaceflight research, including development of advanced spacesuit concepts. She served on the technical panel that supported the National Research Council’s Committee on Human Spaceflight during its work on a report completed last year outlining several ‘pathways’ for human space exploration.” [Space News, 4/27/15]

  4/28/15 - KTVH (Helena): Dava Newman Confirmed as NASA Deputy Administrator
  Helena native Dr. Dava Newman has been confirmed as the new NASA Deputy Administrator.
  The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Newman Monday. Dr. Dava Newman is a graduate of C.R. Anderson Middle School and Capital High School in Helena.  Newman received her bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and her master's and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT.” [KTVH, 4/28/15]

  4/28/15 - AP: Helena Native to Be Second in Command at NASA
  “Helena native Dava Newman will become the deputy administrator of NASA. The Independent Record newspaper of Helena reports that President Barack Obama nominated Newman to fill the position last October. She was approved by the Senate Monday. Newman will be second in command at NASA and provide leadership, planning and policy direction. She will also work with the administrator to represent NASA to government officials and other groups. She graduated from Capital High School and went on to teach aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and invent a new spacesuit. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines called Newman a testament to the quality of Montana's public education. Newman will continue her work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while waiting to be officially installed by the president.” [AP, 4/28/15]

  4/27/15 - Parabolic Arc: Dava Newman Approved as NASA Deputy Administrator
  “The Senate has approved Dava J. Newman as NASA’s new deputy administrator by an 87-0 vote. The approval comes 20 months after Lori Garver left the position for the top staff job at the Air Line Pilots Association. Newman is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The White House nominated her for the position in October. ‘It’s an enormous honor to serve at NASA in times when our country is extending humanity’s reach into space while strengthening American leadership here on Earth,’ Newman said in a statement. ‘I’m profoundly grateful to President Obama, the United States Senate, and Administrator Bolden – along with everyone at MIT. I can’t wait to come aboard.’ Newman’s research has included the development of a radical new spacesuit design that is tighter-fitting and would afford much greater mobility and lighter weight than today’s bulky pressure suits. She has focused on quantifying astronaut performance in space, including computer modeling of the dynamics of human motion in microgravity conditions. Newman has also developed exercise countermeasures, serving as principal investigator for three spaceflight experiments, and specializes in understanding partial-gravity locomotion for future planetary exploration. Her development of patented, wearable compression suits has also led her into research on assistive technologies for people with locomotion impairment.” [Parabolic Arc, 4/27/15]

  4/27/15 - SpacePolicyOnline: Senate Approves Newman As NASA Deputy Administrator, Cruz Misses Vote
  “Today the Senate confirmed Dava Newman's nomination to be the next Deputy Administrator of NASA. The vote was 87-0.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee's Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness that oversees NASA, did not vote.   He also was absent from the committee vote that forwarded Newman's nomination to the Senate in March. His absence from the votes is notable because of his leadership position on NASA issues as chairman of that subcommittee, although he is earning a reputation for missing important votes on unrelated topics as well.  His office often explains that scheduling conflicts are the problem.  Cruz is campaigning for the Republican Presidential nomination… Newman is from Montana and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) spoke in favor of her nomination on behalf of Republicans.  Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) spoke on behalf of Democrats.  Both briefly summarized her career achievements.  Daines particularly praised her career as an inspiration to young Montanans to pursue careers in space and engineering.  Nelson spoke mostly of his participation in a space shuttle mission piloted by current NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and said that Bolden needed help to run the agency and Newman is "just the right person." [SpacePolicyOnline, 4/27/15]

  4/28/15 - Boston Business Journal: U.S. Senate Appoints MIT Professor Dava Newman as NASA Deputy Administrator
  Dava Newman, an MIT professor who specializes in aeronautics and astronautics, was appointed as NASA's deputy administrator by the U.S. Senate on Monday. Newman is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems and has been with MIT since 1993. As deputy administrator of NASA, Newman will lead NASA's governmental affairs initiatives, oversee the agency's offices, communications and educational programs and serve as NASA representative to the multinational partnership that manages the International Space Station.” [Boston Business Journal, 4/28/15]

  4/27/15 - Senator Daines’ Office: Daines Congratulates Helena Native Dr. Dava Newman on Confirmation as NASA Deputy Administrator
  “Senator Steve Daines today congratulated Helena native Dr. Dava Newman on her confirmation as the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Deputy Administrator. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Newman today. Before today’s vote, Daines spoke on the Senate floor in support of Newman’s nomination.” [Daines.Senate.gov, 4/27/15]

  4/27/15 - Senator Tester’s Office: Tester Congratulates Montana Native Confirmed as NASA’s Deputy Administrator
  “Senator Jon Tester today congratulated Montana native Dava Newman, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be Deputy Administrator at NASA. ‘Dava Newman will be a strong leader at NASA and play a major role in the future of engineering in this country. I thank her for her many years in the classroom inspiring young folks to launch a career in STEM. All Montanans can be proud of her great accomplishments.’ Dava Newman is a graduate of Capital High School in Helena. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and her master's degree and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is currently a professor of Aeronautics and Engineering Systems.” [Tester.NASA.gov, 4/27/15]

  4/28/15 - MIT News: Dava Newman Confirmed as NASA Deputy Administrator
  “The U.S. Senate yesterday unanimously confirmed the appointment of MIT Professor Dava Newman as NASA deputy administrator, the agency’s number-two position. The appointment will become official when signed by President Obama. Newman is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems. On the MIT faculty since 1993, she directs the Institute’s Technology and Policy Program and MIT Portugal Program, and is co-director of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Man Vehicle Laboratory. She is a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology faculty member, and a Margaret McVicar Faculty Fellow.” [MIT News, 4/28/15]

   

  March 2015

  3/25/15 “ Independent Record: Helena native Dava Newman one step closer to high-ranking NASA position
  Dava Newman, who was born and raised in Helena, was confirmed by a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday to serve as the deputy administrator of NASA. Newman is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was nominated for the NASA position last October by President Barack Obama. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, on which Montana Sen. Steve Daines serves, voted unanimously to approve her nomination. It will now go to a vote before the full Senate. [Independent Record, 3/25/15]