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.
Observations made with NASA’s Kepler space telescope suggest that the formation of Earth-like planets around stars similar to the Sun has been under way since the earliest era of the universe.
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts awarded to the two companies in September – $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX – will lead to an average per seat cost of $58 million versus the $76 million currently charged by Russia for three-seat Soyuz flights.
The Planetary Society is preparing for the first test flight of its LightSail experiment in May, which is designed to assess the deployment mechanism for the four-part, 344-sq.-ft. Mylar sail from a three-unit CubeSat.
