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.
A NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts successfully docked to the International Space Station April 9, just more than 6 hr. after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with all three men prepared, if necessary, to continue minimal staffing of the orbiting science lab through October.
“Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload,” is a global crowdsourcing initiative unveiled by the space agency on April 9 to significantly reduce the size of rugged instruments, sensors and experiments that can be launched to the Moon.
NASA has selected Masten Space Systems, of Mojave, California, to launch, land and oversee operations of eight science payloads at the lunar south pole for at least 12 days in 2022 under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
