Jesse Buffington, a former research assistant and REU student at the space center, is currently a COOP student at the Johnson Space Center.  His duties include the design and overseeing fabrication of parts for various vacuum chambers and the systems that support them, including the largest man-rated, thermal vacuum chamber in the country.

Space Photonics, Inc. a space center industrial partner, has been awarded a $16.2 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.  This contract is one of the largest Department of Defense awards ever made to a Northwest Arkansas company.  The four-year program will produce a range of laser communications systems for the Air Force and will lead to a much larger customer base in the aerospace industry.

Chuck Chalfant is the president and CEO of Space Photonics, Inc., and Rick Ulrich, a member of the space center and a faculty member in the department of Chemical Engineering, is a collaborator with the company.

Robert M. Nelson, Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, presented the fall 2005 Barringer Lecture entitled “The Cassini/Huygens Mission and the Saturn System” on 8th November.  Based on a 25-year career studying the planets and recent involvement with the Cassini mission, Dr. Nelson presented an engaging and exciting overview of Saturn and its rings and moons that prompted many questions from an audience ranging from senior faculty to eighth graders.  Also during his visit he gave a technical presentation on the light scattering properties of soil particles on the surface of an airless planet and he talked to our graduate students about careers as a NASA scientist.     

Robert Mitchell, the Cassini Program Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, was recently on campus to accept the Citation of Distinguished Alumni award.  During his visit, he presented a talk entitled “The Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn.” 

Robert Mitchell was born in Springville, Pennsylvania.  He graduated from the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville in 1964 and holds Masters’ degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics. 

Since joining JPL in 1965, Mr. Mitchell has worked on trajectory design, mission design, and navigation for planetary exploration projects such as Mariners 5, 6, 7, and 9, and on the Viking mission.  From there, he moved to the Galileo mission, serving as design manager from 1979 to 1988, and then went on manage JPL’s mission design section from 1988 to 1993.  He returned to Galileo to manage the science and sequence office until 1996 when he was appointed Project Manager of the mission.  Two years later, he accepted the dual-role of Program Manager/Project Manager of Cassini.  He is a recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Awards and has also earned two NASA Outstanding Leadership awards.

Tommy Holloway, former Manager of the International Space Station Program office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1963 with a degree in mechanical engineering.  He received the Citation of Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996. 

Holloway began his career with NASA in 1963, planning astronaut activities for Gemini and Apollo flights in the Mission Control Center.  He was a flight director in Mission Control for early space shuttle flights and became chief of the Flight Director Office in 1985.  In 1989, he was named Assistant Director for the Space Shuttle Program for the Mission Operations Directorate.  In this capacity he managed flight operations for the Space Shuttle Program.  In 1992, he became the Deputy Manager for Program Integration with the Space Shuttle Program; in 1994 he was named Director of the Phase 1 Program.  The Phase 1 Program was the joint NASA/Russian program that flew NASA astronauts on the Russian Mir Space Station and used the Shuttle to transport astronauts and logistics to the MIR.

Holloway was named manager of the Space Shuttle Program in August 1995.  Twenty-three shuttle flights were flown under his leadership.  He became Manager, International Space Station Program, in 1999.  Under his leadership the first crew was launched to the International Space Station and the Station was expanded to over 300,000 pounds. 

During his career, Holloway received many awards including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, The National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, and the National Rotary Award for Space Achievement in 2001, given to recognize outstanding managers of operations, engineering and science programs.  He retired in July 2002.