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.
NASA suffered a second setback June 8 in its drive to develop entry, descent and landing (EDL) technology for an eventual human landing on Mars, with the failure of a redesigned supersonic parachute on a high-speed deceleration flight test off the coast of Hawaii.
The six-person International Space Station carried out a nearly 5 ½ half min. maneuver on June 8 to avoid a close pass of a fragment from a U.S. Minotaur rocket launched in 2013 that was to pass within 3 mi. of the orbiting science lab late in the day.
After a suspenseful 17 days in Earth orbit, the Planetary Society reported the deployment start of its crowdsourced LightSail-A, a demonstration of solar sail technology that could one day propel spacecraft between the planets.
