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Terry Ryan Succeeds Tim Reardon as Constellis CEO
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Terry Ryan Succeeds Tim Reardon as Constellis CEO

Constellis has announced that Tim Reardon, the company’s chief executive officer and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, has resigned from his role, Constellis reported on Tuesday. Lead director and previous Wash100 Award winner Terry Ryan will succeed Reardon as executive chairman and chief executive officer with Constellis, effective immediately.

“I want to thank Tim for his leadership and relentless commitment to supporting our mission partners and dedicated employees, especially over this past year of the pandemic,” Ryan said. “As CEO, Tim successfully led the company through a financial restructuring and corporate-wide integration of multiple business entities,” Ryan added.

Ryan has more than two decades of executive level experience across the federal technical services market. Prior to his tenure with Constellis, Ryan served as chief executive officer of Adroit Systems, VTG and Tenax Aerospace.

In addition, Ryan was named president of the ManTech Systems Engineering & Advanced Technology Group in Sept. 2009. He joined ManTech from Mercury Federal Systems, where he served the president and chairman. Previously, he was senior vice president of Strategic Development for SAIC. With SAIC he was responsible for strategy and mergers and acquisitions for the Intelligence, Security and Technology Group.

Before joining SAIC, Ryan was the vice president and director for SRA International’s C4ISR Center. He also served as the Department of Defense (DoD) director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).

He has advised past directors of the CIA and DARPA on advanced technology issues, and has served many years in the federal government. He also served as deputy director, Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, and as a professional staff member on the United States Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence oversight committees.

“It has truly been an honor to lead such a great company with so many exceptional people, and I am excited about Constellis’ future with Terry at the helm,” Reardon said. “I have great confidence that Terry’s leadership, vision, and industry experience will lead to continuing success.”

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Boeing Completes Starliner Software Qualification; John Vollmer Quoted
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Boeing Completes Starliner Software Qualification; John Vollmer Quoted

Boeing has completed its requalification of the CST-100 Starliner’s flight software, the company reported on Tuesday. With the qualification, Boeing will prepare for its next test flight.  Boeing’s starliner will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) during Orbital Flight Test-2, a second uncrewed flight test, in March 2021. 

“The work this team put into exhaustively wringing out our software is a defining moment for the program,” said John Vollmer, Starliner vice president and program manager. “We’re smarter as a team having been through this process, and most importantly, we’re smarter as a human spaceflight community.”

During Boeing’s requalification, teams conducted a full review of Starliner’s flight software and the process by which mission modifications or upgrades will be formally qualified in the future. The team evaluated Starliner’s software requirements and the testing associated with verification. 

Additionally, the team reviewed Starliner’s Avionics and Software Integration Lab (ASIL) to ensure it was sufficiently outfitted and configured to support all testing. Starliner was also reviewed for integration of software, which included all recommended flight hardware. Software engineers also validated all the simulators and emulators to ensure they were accurate models.

The team also conducted tests to confirm Starliner’s updated software met design specifications. They also directed static and dynamic tests inside the software integration lab. Hardware and software integrated test events are planned with the spacecraft’s launch vehicle provider, United Launch Alliance (ULA), as well as with NASA’s ISS program.

Following testing, Boeing will then conduct an end-to-end simulation of the OFT-2 test flight, using flight hardware and the final versions of Starliner’s flight software to model the spacecraft’s behavior, including pre-launch, docking, undocking and landing.

“Throughout all the turmoil 2020 handed us, this team remained energetic and inspired to be successful,” said Aaron Kraftcheck, Starliner’s software test and verification manager. “They want to do their very best for their country and their fellow citizens by helping to restore the pride NASA has in flying humans safely in space.”

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NASCIO Highlights Harmonized Cyber Regulations in 2021 Fed Advocacy Priorities
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NASCIO Highlights Harmonized Cyber Regulations in 2021 Fed Advocacy Priorities

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) plans to focus on providing state and local governments with a cybersecurity grant program, aligning federal regulations on cybersecurity and launching other efforts to ensure governments are capable of defending against increasing cybersecurity attacks.

NASCIO released Thursday that its federal advocacy priorities for 2021 intended to highlight the need for states and the federal government to work closely together to achieve cyber resiliency.

According to the paper, the nonprofit will advocate for use of .gov domain across governments, expansion of broadband access and changes to how the Federal Communications Commission conducts broadband mapping. NASCIO will also call for state and local governments’ funding for the modernization of aging information technology systems.

Denis Goulet, NASCIO president and New Hampshire commissioner and CIO, said the priorities underscore the need to have a “multi-faceted approach to cybersecurity.”

“COVID-19 has also shed light on issues, like modernization and broadband, that states have grappled with for years,” said Goulet. “It is our hope that highlighting these topics in our advocacy priorities will help states confront these challenges.”

Of the said priorities, the widespread adoption of the .gov domain and the coordination of federal cybersecurity regulations were retained from NASCIO’s 2020 Federal Advocacy Priorities.

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Rob Joyce Appointed NSA Cybersecurity Director
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Rob Joyce Appointed NSA Cybersecurity Director

Rob Joyce, special liaison officer for the National Security Agency (NSA) at the U.S. embassy in London, has been named as the next head of NSA's cybersecurity directorate.

He will succeed 2020 Wash100 Award recipient Anne Neuberger, who has served as the agency's cyber chief since May 2019 and will transition to a new role as deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology.

Joyce joined NSA in 1989 and previously served as senior adviser for cybersecurity strategy to the agency director, chief of its tailored access operations and deputy deputy director for the information assurance directorate.

His previous assignments included time as special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the White House and as acting homeland security adviser.

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Former FEMA Officer Deanne Criswell Gets Agency Administrator Nomination
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Former FEMA Officer Deanne Criswell Gets Agency Administrator Nomination

Deanne Criswell, who worked at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2011 to 2017, was nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as administrator of FEMA.

Criswell is the commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Department, a position she has held since July 2019 and in which she coordinates NYC’s coronavirus pandemic response, the Biden transition team said Friday.

At FEMA, she served as federal coordinating officer and led the agency’s national incident management team during her career there. She previously worked as a firefighter for 21 years and as deputy fire chief at the Colorado Air National Guard.

Biden also chose David Cohen, former deputy director of the CIA and current head of WilmerHale’s business and financial integrity group, to assume the position he held at the agency from 2015 to 2017.

Shalanda Young, staff director and clerk for the House Appropriations Committee; and Jason Miller, the U.S. Trade Representative agency review lead for the transition team, received nominations to be deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the agency’s deputy director for management, respectively.

Janet McCabe, a professor of practice at Indiana University McKinney School of Law and former acting assistant for the Environmental Protection Agency’s air and radiation office, was nominated to the EPA deputy administrator position.

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Will Roper: Prime Contractors Acquiring Smaller Companies Limit Industrial Base
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Will Roper: Prime Contractors Acquiring Smaller Companies Limit Industrial Base

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and three-time Wash100 Award recipient, said prime contractors' acquisition of middle-tier companies has shrunk the industrial base, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday.

The Department of Defense (DoD) now sees the industrial base as more generalized than specialized, as major contractors secure awards for almost every program, Roper told reporters Thursday at a press event.

The assistant secretary noted that this trend lowers competition and may limit the U.S. Air Force's options for future solicitations. “As you build that generalization and the overhead required to mechanize it, you get the same inefficiency in companies that you see in the government,” he said.

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NSA Releases Guidance on ‘DNS Over HTTPS’ Cybersecurity Approach
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NSA Releases Guidance on ‘DNS Over HTTPS’ Cybersecurity Approach

The National Security Agency (NSA) has issued a guidance on the implementation, benefits and disadvantages of using a form of encrypted Domain Name System to fortify user privacy and authentication procedures.

NSA said in the guidance that DNS over Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Transport Layer Security (DoH) can help prevent DNS traffic breaches and system manipulation resulting from unauthorized access.

DoH uses external “resolvers” to support security functions for remote networks that don't have DNS security controls. The cybersecurity technique can also be used by enterprise networks through an externally hosted service or enterprise-based DNS server, the guidance states.

However, DoH can also result in issues such as breaches in upstream DNS traffic, configuration vulnerabilities in internal networks and a “false sense of security”, according to the notice.

NSA’s recommendations include blocking out all other unauthorized DoH resolvers, utilizing a virtual private network, leveraging DNS logs and validating Domain Name System Security Extensions.

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CISA Establishes Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation Venture
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CISA Establishes Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation Venture

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has launched a venture under its National Risk Management Center that will oversee cyber threat mitigation efforts in support of systems critical to economic and national security.

Bob Kolasky, assistant director for NRMC at CISA, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that the Systemic Cyber Risk Reduction Venture will utilize a National Critical Functions Risk Architecture which will serve as a “system of systems” designed to consistently provide insights on cyber risk management and potential threat impact. 

According to CISA, plans are also in place to develop cyber risk metrics and transition the agency's Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force throughout the critical infrastructure sector.

NRMC plans to achieve an initial operating capability for the architecture this year. CISA additionally intends to fund national laboratories in support of other software assurance efforts, Kolasky said.

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NASA Taps Poland to Build Instrument for Interstellar Research Program
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NASA Taps Poland to Build Instrument for Interstellar Research Program

Poland's science ministry will build a new space mapping technology for NASA under an agreement between the two organizations and a larger effort to study the sun's heliosphere.

Poland will develop the Global Solar Wind Structure instrument that would gather data on hydrogen from solar wind and interstellar space, NASA said Thursday. GLOWS' function will support the U.S. space agency's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) that aims to assess and map the sun's heliosphere.

IMAP also seeks to observe the interaction between the solar heliosphere and neighboring galaxies. David J. McComas, a Princeton University professor who serves as IMAP's principal investigator, will lead a party of 24 international institutions for the effort.

NASA launched IMAP as the fifth entry in the space agency's Solar Terrestrial Probes program managed within Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Unmanned Vessel Demos Autonomous Performance for DoD, U.S. Navy; SCO Director Jay Dryer Quoted
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Unmanned Vessel Demos Autonomous Performance for DoD, U.S. Navy; SCO Director Jay Dryer Quoted

The Department of Defense (DoD) demonstrated the autonomous performance of an experimental unmanned surface vessel at an exercise with U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, DoD News reported Wednesday. 

The Ghost Fleet Overlord USV took part in the Department of the Navy's (DON) Dawn Blitz exercise to demonstrate compliance with international standards made to prevent ship collisions.

The autonomous vessel also traversed over 4,700 nautical miles with almost completely autonomous performance on its way to the exercise on the west coast. DoD's Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) partnered with DON to develop Ghost Fleet Overlord.

"It represents what SCO does best: integrate mature technologies to accelerate service priorities and create new capabilities for our warfighters,'' SCO Director Jay Dryer said about the USV's demonstrated performance.

SCO will transfer a pair of Ghost Fleet Overlord prototypes to the Navy's Surface Development Squadron One before the current fiscal year ends.

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