Purdue University President Mitch Daniels and NASA Official William Gerstenmaier (BSAAE'77; OAE'03; DEA'07) will discuss human space exploration on February 23, 2015 during a public conversation. The conversation, "Pathways to Space Exploration," will be from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. It is free and open to the public.

The Indiana Bicentennial Commission selected the Purdue University College of Engineering to design a torch--or set of torches--that will be used in an Olympic-style relay through the state's 92 counties, where torchbearers will visit population centers and points of interest. School of Aeronautics & Astronautics Professor Timothee Pourpoint's senior design class will create the Indiana Bicentennial torch.

School of Aeronautics and Astronautics professor Dr. John Sullivan will speak on February 19, 2015 in the collaborative four-part seminar series sponsored by Discovery Park and the College of Agriculture. His topic is "Agricultural Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles."

On December 5, 2014, people around the world watched with excitement and fascination as NASA successfully launched the Orion spacecraft. The test flight mission, lasting almost four and a half hours, took a spacecraft further into space than any manned vehicle since the Apollo missions over forty years ago. The crowd gathered to view the Orion launch in the early morning hours at Kurz Atrium in Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering was reminded yet again of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ enormous contributions to space exploration.

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Beutner (BSAAE'87; OAE'07) and Dr. Alton D. Romig on their selection by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in the 2015 Class of AIAA Fellows and Honorary Fellows. They will be honored at an induction ceremony on May 6, 2015 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

As a part of ongoing collaborations, Gemini and Apollo astronaut, Dr. Buzz Aldrin was in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics to interact with Professor James Longuski's students. Dr. Aldrin spent time with the Advanced Astrodynamics Concepts research group and the students in the senior design course, AAE 450.

Research done at Purdue University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests collisions of planetary embryos--the seeds to the planets in our solar system that existed 4 billion years ago--could be the origin of the material that formed asteroids. Dr. Jay Melosh and Dr. David Minton, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics professors by courtesy, say the next step in the research may be to explore how this chondrule formation mechanism fits into a new model for the early stages of planet formation.

The multistate Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation includes the Indiana-based Design, Modeling and Simulation Enabling Technology Center at Purdue University. Team leaders at Purdue includes School of Aeronautics and Astronautics professors Wenbin Yu, associate professor; R. Byron Pipes, engineering professor who is leading Purdue's research; Johnathan Goodsell, visiting assistant professor; and Ronald Steuterman, the center's managing director.

Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics alumnus Mark Brave (BSAAE'73) received the National Space Club Florida Committee 2014 Hall of Fame Award for his significant contributions in Human Space Flight at a ceremony at the Radisson Hotel in Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 12, 2014.

The Purdue University Board of Trustees approved School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Dr. Weinong Wayne Chen as the Reilly Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Materials Engineering on Saturday, December 20, 2014.