Baylor College of Medicine’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health has chosen six projects that aim to address NASA’s biomedical needs for deep space missions.

The projects will receive funds over two years to study astronaut health surveillance, medical guidance for deep space missions, quick medications and sensor-based health assessments, the space agency said Tuesday.

TRISH works to address health challenges that NASA expects to encounter in manned deep space exploration and reduce associated risks.

The institute performs this work in support of the space agency’s Human Research Program.

The following individuals will lead the selected research projects:

• David Howell, Bondwell Technologies
• Karen McDonald, University of California, Davis
• Luca Giancardo, University of Texas Health Science Center
• Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Steven Yule, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• Wei Gao, California Institute of Technology

Cindy Shaver, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for procurement within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, said she seeks to prevent consortia’s abuse of other transaction authority agreements, FCW reported Monday.

Shaver told attendees at an AFCEA event that she seeks to control the amount of OTAs, which should be used to encourage small and nontraditional companies to work with the government on research and development efforts.

“I want to make sure that, from an industry perspective, you know what technology is covered by which consortium OTA because if you have to join all of them, that will undermine the exact purpose and create a barrier to entry to what the tool is for,” she said.

According to Shaver, the Navy increased its OTA use and used the authority for 120 out of 240,000 contracting activities. She added that OTA awards were valued at $250,000 to $1 million.

Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and John Thune, R-S.D., are reintroducing the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act focused on the rapid dissemination of emergency alerts on disasters and missile threats to the general public.

Schatz’s office said Thursday the legislation is aimed at ensuring that emergency alerts issued by federal, state, local and tribal governments are quickly transmitted through radio, television and mobile devices as well as new channels like online media and streaming sites.

In addition, the READI Act seeks to detect false alerts that don’t come from platforms and systems operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission. It also mandates state emergency communications committees to conduct periodic reviews on their emergency alert system strategy to ensure that these are up-to-date.

“Our bill fixes a number of important problems with the system responsible for delivering emergency alerts,” Schatz said. “In a real emergency, these alerts can save lives so we have to do everything we can to get it right.”

Derek Tournear has been named the Space Development Agency’s first permanent director after holding the role on an acting basis for four months.

He will lead the agency and its efforts to consolidate space development initiatives across the Department of Defense, monitor DoD’s future space architecture and accelerate deployment of space technology platforms to the military, the Pentagon said Monday.

“Our strategy is to unify efforts across the military services and government agencies to rapidly develop capabilities that are responsive to the threat, are cost-effective and increase our technological advantage,” said Michael Griffin, undersecretary for research and engineering at DoD and a 2019 Wash100 awardee.

“Derek will lead our effort to achieve those goals,” Griffin added.

Prior to the appointment, Tournear was assistant director for space in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. His public-sector career also included time as senior scientist for space activities and technologies in the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity’s Office of Smart Collection and program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

He previously worked as director of research and development at the space and intelligence solutions segment of Harris Corp.