Posts Tagged ‘Patricia Hynes’

Release courtesy of the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS)

WhiteKnightTwo and VSS Enterprise will flyover Spaceport America at the inauguration of the runway at Spaceport America. This will be the first long distance test flight of the VG spaceship and mothership system as part of the celebrations inaugurating the completion of the runway at Virgin Galactic’s future home – Spaceport America.

A flyover on October 22 of the two craft will be a unique event enabling attendees to see both the spaceport and the vehicles. “It will be an extraordinary conclusion for Space Week in New Mexico”, said ISPCS Chair Patricia Hynes.

The updated ISPCS website contains complete information about Space Week in New Mexico where ISPCS, the leading meeting of the commercial and personal spaceflight industry conference is held.

This year’s conference will be held Wednesday-Thursday, October 20 – 21, Flyover at Spaceport America, Friday, October 22.

ISPCS is organized by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, a member of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, administered by the NASA.

For more information on ISPCS 2010, visit www.ispcs.com.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Sun-News

By Amanda L. Husson

A master’s degree in aerospace engineering could take Krystal Deinez any number of places – or help her stay right here in southern New Mexico. Deinez, 24, came to New Mexico State University from Maxwell, N.M., to get her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and will be one of the first students to join the aerospace engineering graduate program this fall.

From there, even the sky’s not the limit. Deinez said she’d be looking everywhere for job opportunities when she finishes her degree, but she sees potential here. “I like southern New Mexico,” she said. “With the spaceport and White Sands, there are a lot of possibilities I could look for.”

Patricia Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, said the graduate program, which received final approval on Dec. 15 after a three-year process, was key to developing the highly skilled workforce that will be needed to support the growing commercial space industry in the area. “This is trying to help NMSU become to the commercial space industry what Stanford has become to Silicon Valley,” she said. As a new industry evolves, they’ve got to have the university to back it up.

Tom Burton, mechanical and aerospace engineering department head, said the program – and the industry – need time to grow, but in the long run, more companies will be looking into the area because of both. “Twenty to 30 years from now, there will be a big aerospace presence around the spaceport,” Burton predicted. “There will be an aerospace industry here and we will have the technical base to support it.”

This year more than 60 entering freshmen declared themselves aerospace engineering majors – the largest year-to-year increase in the undergraduate program’s short history. Another 60 are expected in the fall, and an external study calls for a $1 million increase in the program to support students and hire six full-time faculty members. The program employs two full-time faculty members at present, with two more projected to start in the fall.

Deinez, who has already begun her graduate work, will be one of just a few masters’ students this fall. “I haven’t made up my mind,” on a career focus, Deinez said, “but I think I would definitely be more valuable with a graduate degree.”