Mark is based in Houston, where he has written on aerospace for more than 25 years. While at the Houston Chronicle, he was recognized by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation in 2006 for his professional contributions to the public understanding of America's space program through news reporting. He has written on U. S. space policy as well as NASA's human and space science initiatives.
Mark was recognized by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and Headliners Foundation as well as the Chronicle in 2004 for news coverage of the shuttle Columbia tragedy and its aftermath.
He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University.
As it plans its Artemis lunar-exploration program, NASA is engaging the planetary-science community in ways not possible during the Apollo 11-17 missions that landed a dozen men trained primarily as test pilots on the lunar surface to gather samples for researchers on Earth.
Developed initially for a handful of test flights at its Gale Crater landing site on Mars, NASA’s small solar-powered Ingenuity drone helicopter has logged 20 flights as it graduated to become a reconnaissance asset for the Perseverance rover.
Artemis I, NASA’s approaching test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and uncrewed Orion capsule around the Moon and back to Earth, could be paving the way for more than human deep-space exploration.
