FROM THE INSTITUTE
AIAA presented its premier awards at the AIAA Awards Gala, 30 April, at Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, DC. The Class of 2025 AIAA Fellows and AIAA Honorary Fellows and AIAA Foundation award and scholarship recipients also were recognized.
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Tag: From the Institute
Aviation Autonomy Experts Discuss What it Will Take to Ensure Safer Skies
FROM THE INSTITUTE
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operates the busiest and most complex airspace in the world with more than 45,000 daily flights operating to over 5,000 public use airports. The United States is now experiencing the limits of what the current system was designed to handle and maybe the limit of what any human-centric system can achieve.
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AIAA Honorary Fellow Casani Died in June 2025
FROM THE INSTITUTE
John R. Casani, an engineer who served a central role in many of NASA’s deep space missions, died on 19 June. He was 92 years old. Casani volunteered on the AIAA Management Technical Committee and the Institute Development Committee (1996–2000); he also served as Board of Directors Vice President of Standards (1997–2000). A Class of 2009 Honorary Fellow, Casani also was honored with the 1979 AIAA Space Systems Award, the 1991 AIAA von Kármán Lectureship in Astronautics, and the 2005 AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award.
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RTX Ventures Aims to Transform the Industry, One Investment at a Time
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Innovators! If you know of a startup enterprise in the aerospace or defense industries looking for investments, you may want to get to know RTX Ventures. A subsidiary of aerospace giant RTX Corporation, RTX Ventures is a three-year-old venture capital firm with a unique approach, noted Executive Director Roman Mueller. He described how the firm seeks companies to provide investment funding.
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A Day in the Life of the Thunderbird Crew
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Keeping America’s premier aerial demonstration team flying day in and day out takes extraordinary skill behind the scenes. More than just routine aircraft upkeep, maintaining the Thunderbirds fleet is a high-precision dance. A handpicked cadre of 135 maintenance professionals across 30 specialties keeps the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds sky-ready to perform the precision flying and heart-stopping maneuvers that viewers on the ground love.
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From Classroom to Flight Line: 30 Years of Design/Build/Fly
FROM THE INSTITUTE
In April 2026, AIAA DBF will celebrate its 30th anniversary fly-off in Wichita, Kansas, hosted by Textron Aviation. The objective for this year is to design, build, and test a banner-towing bush plane, conduct charter flights to pay for the airplane, and start a banner-towing business. The mission balances performance with practicality, pushing students to innovate while staying grounded in real-world design constraints. Learn more about the draft rules and submission deadlines.
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AIAA Award Presented at International Conference on Environmental Systems
FROM THE INSTITUTE
The 2025 AIAA Jeffries Aerospace Medicine and Life Sciences Research Award was presented at the International Conference on Environmental Systems, 13-17 July in Prague, Czechia, to Christophe Lasseur, European Space Agency (retired). He was honored “For leadership of international advanced life support research toward development of safe and reliable closed loop regenerative systems for sustained human presence in space.”
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To Succeed, Space Startups Must Leverage Agility and Their Unique Value
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Space startups must set themselves apart from established competitors by delivering something distinct – whether it’s better technology, reliability, or price – and leveraging their agility and passion. “That means offering a higher level of reliability and mission services to your customers,” said former SpaceX space mission engineer Laura Crabtree, who is now CEO and co-founder of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup, Epsilon3.
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SPHEREx Mission: Mapping the Universe in Unprecedented Detail
From the Institute
In the vast expanse of space, a revolutionary observatory no larger than a small car is quietly transforming our understanding of the cosmos. SPHEREx, NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, represents a remarkable achievement in astronomical engineering—a mission that delivers extraordinary science from a deceptively modest package.
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AIAA Establishes Steve L. Karman Jr. Aerospace Engineering Scholarship to Honor Aerospace Legacy
From the Institute
AIAA is proud to honor the legacy of a remarkable family man who made significant contributions to aerospace over his 40+ year career through the new Steve L. Karman Jr. Aerospace Engineering Scholarship. The $10,000 scholarship aims to support undergraduate students who embody the same dedication to aerospace excellence that Steve demonstrated throughout his career. It was made possible through the generous funding provided by AIAA Fellow John Chawner, a colleague and dear friend of Steve.
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Beyond the Boundaries: Highlights from the 2025 AIAA Rocky Mountain Section Symposium
FROM THE INSTITUTE
On 12 September, the 2025 AIAA Rocky Mountain Section Annual Technical Symposium (RMS ATS) was held at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Centered on the theme “Beyond the Boundaries: Aerospace Innovations for the Next Frontier,” the event drew over 350 attendees ranging from high school students to seasoned professionals and retirees. Throughout the day, speakers and presenters underscored the value of bringing together thought leaders, students, researchers, and enthusiasts in a shared forum to foster in-depth discussion and community building.
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Physics Can Revolutionize AI Simulations for Better Design
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Incorporating physics into artificial intelligence (AI) models for simulation will help rewrite how to design aerospace systems, noted Juan Alonso, Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder of Luminary Cloud and Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. In a far-reaching and intriguing presentation, Alonso described the Physics AI revolution in an AIAA Aerospace Perspective Series webinar in August, as well as on the Hub stage at AIAA AVIATION Forum and ASCEND in July.
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Ascendant Alumni – Their Journey & Where They Are Today
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Since the inception of ASCEND in 2020, a global community of emerging space trailblazers has taken the stage to pitch their vision for “Space for All.” In five years, the community has grown to 60 thought leaders. Program creator Moriba Jah, in an interview before this year’s final cohort, said, “What they share is a fire and a passion to be agents of change,” and to advocate for “regenerative, restorative, and just human space activity.” The Ascendants profiled [in this article] share how the program inspired their journey as space stewardship advocates.
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Protecting U.S. Leadership in Space Commerce: Funding at Risk
FROM THE INSTITUTE
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has cut the FY25 spend plan for the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) to $37 million, down from $65 million. This represents a 47% budget reduction from FY24 and eliminates the two-year funding authority Congress provided for OSC to purchase commercial space situational awareness (SSA) data.
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Aviation Startups Showcase Disruptive New Aircraft Coming by 2050
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Commercial aviation is staring down a massive shortfall—and time is running out. According to industry estimates, more than 40,000 new aircraft will be needed by 2050 to meet global air transportation demand. Yet between them, the world’s two largest aircraft manufacturers—Boeing and Airbus—can only deliver about 26,000 new aircraft by the midpoint of this century.
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Student Scientist’s Space Biology Experiment Wins 2025 Genes in Space Competition
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Under the bright lights of the ASCEND stage in Las Vegas, a remarkable moment for student innovation took flight. Nitya Johar, 17, of Skyline High School in Sammamish, Washington, was announced as the 2025 national winner of the Genes in Space competition. Her pioneering experiment will investigate codon usage bias in space, a discovery that could advance spaceflight medicine and biomanufacturing in microgravity.
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Hybrid Aircraft One Step Toward the Future of Aviation
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Aircraft powered by hybrid-electric engines can bridge the gap between today’s fossil-fuel jets and tomorrow’s zero-emission aircraft, said Susan Ying, CEO of AMP2FLY, during the 2025 AIAA Wright Brothers Lecture in Aeronautics. Ying, an AIAA Fellow, used the lecture during the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum in July to unveil a practical roadmap for hybrid-electric flight for commercial aviation that will help achieve near net-zero emissions by 2050 and provide cleaner flights for short-hop routes for commercial success “within a few years.”
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Members Share Flight Deck Lessons on Psychological Safety for Every Work Environment
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Pulling from personal experiences in the flight deck and applying them to the business meeting room, Amanda Simpson joined U.S. Air Force Test Pilot Lt. Col. Carlos Pinedo for an AIAA webinar highlighting the importance of psychological safety in every work environment. They especially emphasized how leaders and subordinates can create and maintain an environment where all ideas and opinions are valued.
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Defending Space from Emerging Threats “A Team Sport,” Says USSF
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Every week, the head of U.S. Space Force’s Space Rapid Capabilities Office is briefed on the growing number of capabilities that adversaries like Russia and China are launching in the space domain. “It’s a little discouraging to see the pace and scale in which capabilities are being fielded into a domain that threatens the Space Force posture and our commercial capabilities,” said Kelly Hammett during last month’s ASCEND panel on navigating the evolving threat landscape.
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From Space to Signal: Experts Outline the Stakes and Solutions for U.S. PNT Resilience
From the Institute
“If GPS is compromised, the consequences will cascade across sectors, from defense to commerce to everyday civilian life. This is not a theoretical risk; it is a strategic imperative,” stated AIAA CEO Clay Mowry at a July briefing at the U.S. House of Representatives. The discussion brought together more than 80 Congressional staff, industry leaders, and stakeholders to hear an expert panel assess the state of U.S. PNT capabilities that support the GPS.
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