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.
PARIS and HOUSTON -- France has repaired a vacuum-chamber leak in a key science instrument that will fly aboard the NASA-led InSight lander mission slated to launch to Mars in early 2016. Engineers at French space agency CNES are now testing the repair to the InSight lander’s SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument to ensure it will maintain the degree of vacuum necessary to carry out its mission.
JAXA experts are assessing the orbital characteristics of the Akatsuki/Venus Climate Orbiter spacecraft following a 20-min. firing of reaction control system thrusters.
The French Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, one of three key instruments planned for launching aboard the NASA-led 2016 InSight Mars lander mission, has experienced a vacuum chamber leak.
