Professor David Spencer was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in June 2009 for his work as Deputy Project Manager of the Phoenix Mars Scout mission.

SSDL graduate student Mike Grant and his co-authors were awarded the Best Atmospheric Flight Mechanics paper at the 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (January 2009 in Orlando, FLA). His paper, AIAA 2009-0522, is entitled, "Smart Divert - A New Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture," and was conducted in collaboration with personnel at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. This is the third consecutive year that an SSDL student has won an AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics best paper award and the second such award for Mike.

SSDL graduate student Zarrin Chua was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Research Program fellowship from the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Professor Joseph Saleh has been named an AIAA Associate Fellow

SSDL graduate student, Jarret Lafleur, was awarded first place in the AIAA student paper competition at this year's Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit (August 18-21, 2008 in Honolulu, HI). His paper, AIAA 2008-6213, is entitled, "Mars Entry Bank Profile Design for Terminal State Optimization," and reports on research he conducted in collaboration with personnel at the NASA Johnson Space Center. This is the second consecutive year that an SSDL student has won this AIAA award.

SSDL graduate students Jarrett Lafleur and Ashley Korzun were awarded first and second place in the student paper competition at the 6th International Planetary Probe Workshop in June 2008.

Ian Clark, Allison Hutchings, Chris Tanner and Robert Braun received the Best Paper Award at the 2008 IEEE Aerospace Conference for their paper entitled, "Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators for Use on Future Robotic Missions to Mars."

The Georgia Tech Pharos team of Jonathan Sharma, Jarret Lafleur, Jillian Apa, Kreston Barron, Nilesh Shah, and Jonathan Townley was awarded 1st place and $5,000 in the Planetary Society's Apophis Mission Design Competition for their design of a mission and flight system to rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. This competition received 37 mission proposals from 20 countries on 6 continents. Dr. Braun and Dr. Saleh served as the team's class instructors.

Professor Ryan Russell and Adam Brinckerhoff received the Best Paper Award at the January 2008 AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting in Galveston, TX for the paper entitled, "Eccentric Orbits around Planetary Moons," AAS 08-181. See Paper

SSDL graduate research assistant Richard Otero received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

A Georgia Tech team of Kristina Alemany, Nittin Arora, Michael Grant, Sachin Jain, Gregory Lantoine, Richard Otero, Benjamin Stahl, Bradley Steinfeldt, and Grant Wells, led by Professor Ryan Russell, earned third place in the 3rd Global Trajectory Optimization Competition. This yearly competition pits the best minds in orbital mechanics on a difficult interplanetary mission design problem requiring a globally optimum solution. The 2007 competition focused on design of a low-thrust, multiple near-Earth asteroid rendezvous mission with return to the Earth. Twenty-six teams, including many from professional organizations, declared their intent to enter this competition. First place was won by CNES, second place by JPL. Congratulations to the entire Georgia Tech student team.

Dr. Braun was awarded the rank of AIAA Fellow.

SSDL graduate student, Mike Grant was awarded first place in the AIAA student paper competition at this year's Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit (August 20-23, 2007 in Hilton Head, SC). His paper, AIAA 2007-6393, is entitled, "Mars Science Laboratory Entry Optimization Using Particle Swarm Methodology," and reports on research he conducted in collaboration with personnel at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

SSDL graduate students Ian Clark, John Theisinger, and Chris Tanner and SSDL undergraduate student Amanda Verges each won student paper or poster awards at the 5th International Planetary Probe Workshop in Bordeaux, France.

The Georgia Tech Heavy MEDL team of Chris Tanner, Mike Grant, Shawn Johnson, Kathy Goben and Ryan Mitchell was awarded first place in the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program University Student Competition on the subject of Mars entry, descent and landing. Dr. Braun and Dr. Cruz served as the team’s class instructors.

The Georgia Tech Mars Heavy-Payload Entry, Descent and Landing Team of Ashley Korzun, Greg Dubos, Curtis Iwata, Ben Stahl and John Quicksall was awarded third place in the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program University Student Competition on the subject of Mars entry, descent and landing. Dr. Braun and Dr. Cruz served as the team’s class instructors.

The Georgia Tech Pharos Team of Jillian Apa, Kreston Barron, Jarret Lafleur, Nilesh Shah, Jonathan Sharma and Jonathan Townley was awarded 2nd place in the NASA ESMD Space Grant Systems Engineering Paper Competition for their mission and flight system concept to explore the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. Dr. Braun and Dr. Saleh served as the team’s class instructors.

The Georgia Tech South Team of Kevin Flaherty, Mike Grant , Ashley Korzun, Ben Stahl and Brad Steinfeldt was awarded third place in the NASA ESMD Space Grant Systems Engineering Paper Competition for their human Mars mission architecture. Dr. Wilhite served as the team’s class instructor.

The Georgia Tech ASTI Team of Amanda Verges, Adam Maser, Matt Panaro, Bala Radharamanan, and Masa Yano was awarded 1st place in the 2007 AIAA Undergraduate Space Systems Design Competition for their mission and flight system concept to explore the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. Dr. Braun and Dr. Saleh served as the team’s class instructors.

Grant Wells was awarded first place honors in the 2006 SAIC student paper competition for his work entitled, "Mars Entry Descent and Landing Parametric Trades."

SSDL graduate research assistant John Christian received the AIAA Willy Z. Sadeh Award in Space Engineering and Space Sciences.

SSDL graduate research assistant Kevin Flaherty received the DOD SMART Fellowship.

SSDL graduate research assistant Ashley Korzun received the NASA GSRP Fellowship.

SSDL undergraduate student Jarret Lafleur was named to the 2006 USA Today All-Academic Team and earned an AIAA Foundation Scholarship.

2nd place in the NASA/USRA RASC-AL National Competition (Graduate Division), Georgia Tech Human Mars Outpost. John Christian, Chris tanner, John Theisinger, Patrick Satyshur, Gregory Lantonie, Greg Dubos, and Ryan Mitchell.

SSDL graduate research assistant Kristina Alemany received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

Georgia Tech intramural graduate league softball championship.

Jarret Lafleur and Amanda Verges, undergraduate research scholars, awarded 2nd place in the 2006 AIAA Southeast Regional Undergraduate Paper Competition for their paper entitled, "Parachutes and Propulsive Descent of Human Mars Exploration.

Forum Favorite Award in NASA/USRA RASC-AL National Design Competition (Undergraduate Division), Georgia Tech Archer Mars Scout Team.

2nd place in the NASA/USRA RASC-AL National Competition (Graduate Division), Georgia Tech Reusable Launch Vehicle Space Tourism Team.

Jarret Lafleur, undergraduate research scholar, selected for an Astronaut Scholarship Award.

Kevin Flaherty and Amanda Verges, undergraduate research scholars, selected for Georgia Tech Presidential Undergraduate Research Awards.

1st place in NASA/USRA RASC-AL National Design Competition (Undergraduate Division), Georgia Tech Cadmus Europa Lander Team.

1st place in NASA/USRA RASC-AL National Design Competition (Graduate Division), Georgia Tech Advanced Hypersonic Spaceplane Team. James Young, Kristina Alemany, Devin Kipp, and J.D. Reeves.