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Robert Lightfoot to Retire as NASA Acting Administrator
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Robert Lightfoot to Retire as NASA Acting Administrator


Robert Lightfoot to Retire as NASA Acting Administrator
Robert Lightfoot

NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot plans to retire in April after a 29-year career at the space agency, Spaceflight Now reported Monday.

He told agency employees in a memo, obtained by Spaceflight Now, that he will work with the White House to help ensure a smooth transition.

Lightfoot was appointed to succeed Charles Bolden as head of NASA on an interim basis in January of last year.

President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Oklahoma) to be the agency’s next administrator in September, but the full Senate has yet to vote on his nomination.

Lightfoot has held various roles of increasing responsibility at NASA such as associate administrator; director of the Marshall Space Flight Center; manager of MSFC’s space shuttle propulsion office; and assistant associate administrator for the agency’s space shuttle program.

He began his career at the agency in 1989 as an MSFC engineer and program manager.

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DHS S&T Releases Cybersecurity Guides Based on R&D Efforts
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DHS S&T Releases Cybersecurity Guides Based on R&D Efforts


DHS S&T Releases Cybersecurity Guides Based on R&D EffortsThe Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate has published two new cybersecurity guides that build on multiple research and development efforts.

Under the DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Program, the Portfolio Guide provides 15 overviews regarding the department’s cybersecurity R&D portfolio, while the Technology Guide features 70 R&D efforts and suggestions on transition-ready technologies, DHS said Monday.

The latter guide also gives focus to technology areas such as cyber competitions, cyber forensics, distributed denial of service defense, data privacy, identity management, mobile security and software assurance.

DHS S&T conducted through evaluation of R&D projects to decide on which will be featured in the two guides.

Both guides were also made as mediums to propagate DHS technologies to more potential users.

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Army Equips National Guard With New Disaster Response Tools
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Army Equips National Guard With New Disaster Response Tools


Army Equips National Guard With New Disaster Response ToolsThe U.S. Army has initiated an effort to equip National Guard units across all states with a new suite of disaster response equipment.

The Disaster Incident Response Emergency Communications Terminal was designed to provide a wide range of first response communications tools that enable access to phone networks, Wi-Fi and 4G Long-Term Evolution, the Army said Monday.

The tool suite was made for both government and non-government use during the occurrences of man-made disasters, natural disasters, civil support missions and other forms of emergency.

DIRECT makes use of satellite-based tactical network transport technologies that enable voice, video and data communications with the Army’s tactical network.

Robert Dobbs, senior network engineer at the Illinois Army National Guard, stated that DIRECT provides a central communications hub that ties different networks and frequencies together.

The Army National Guard’s 406th Signal Company underwent advance training in using DIRECT as part of the tool suite’s pilot users.

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SEC Seeks Chief Risk Officer to Help Manage Commission’s Cybersecurity
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SEC Seeks Chief Risk Officer to Help Manage Commission’s Cybersecurity


SEC Seeks Chief Risk Officer to Help Manage Commission's CybersecurityThe Securities and Exchange Commission wants to recruit a chief risk officer to help boost the agency’s cyber defense measures, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar said during a Data Coalition-hosted forum in Washington that SEC Chairman Jay Clayton suggested the creation of the chief risk officer position.

“We’re having discussions right now with folks in the industry in terms of what types of qualities we would like to have in someone in that particular role,” Piwowar told his audience at the event.

The report noted that Clayton oversees the agency’s response to a breach that happened in 2016 and affected its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system that processes approximately 1.7 million electronic filings a year.

SEC has reviewed the types of data the agency collects as part of an ongoing investigation into the cyber attack, Piwowar noted.

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NOAA Weather Satellite Arrives in Geostationary Orbit
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NOAA Weather Satellite Arrives in Geostationary Orbit


NOAA Weather Satellite Arrives in Geostationary OrbitA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite on Monday reached geostationary orbit and is set to carry out the second deployment phase for solar array components Tuesday.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S officially adopted the name GOES-17 following its arrival at the geostationary orbit and is scheduled to enter the post-launch calibration and testing phase on March 26, NOAA said Monday.

GOES-17 took off on March 1 aboard a United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

NOAA said it expects the Lockheed Martin-built satellite to undergo on-orbit checkout phase for its instruments for a period of six months and deliver its first imagery in mid-May to help monitor storm systems, wildfires, lightning and other environmental and weather hazards across the Western Hemisphere.

The launch of GOES-17 came nearly two years after GOES-16 lifted off aboard the Lockheed-Boeing joint venture’s rocket as the first of NOAA’s four GOES-R Series satellites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lOUkJzhfXM&feature=youtu.be

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Reports: House Intell Panel Concludes Investigation Into Russia’s Election Interference
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Reports: House Intell Panel Concludes Investigation Into Russia’s Election Interference


Reports: House Intell Panel Concludes Investigation Into Russia’s Election InterferenceThe House Intelligence Committee has decided to end its investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election, The Hill reported Monday.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) told reporters Monday the House panel did not find any evidence of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s election campaign and will no longer interview witnesses.

Conaway said the committee has started work on its final report and will hand over a 150-page draft document to Democrat members Tuesday for evaluation.

Lawmakers interviewed 73 witnesses and assessed at least 300,000 documents as part of the investigation that started in January 2017.

The New York Times reported the draft report includes over 25 recommendations associated with cybersecurity and elections, campaign finance regulations and counterintelligence practices.

Conaway noted he aims to accelerate work with U.S. intelligence agencies to declassify the draft document for public access.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is set to conduct a public hearing and release a report on election security in the next few weeks, the report added.

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Senate Committee to Hold Infrastructure Modernization Hearing
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Senate Committee to Hold Infrastructure Modernization Hearing


Senate Committee to Hold Infrastructure Modernization HearingSen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has announced that secretaries of five U.S. federal departments will participate in a congressional hearing about infrastructure modernization efforts.

Thune’s office said Monday leaders at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Labor and Transportation are scheduled to testify Wednesday at the meeting, themed “Rebuilding Infrastructure in America: Administration Perspectives.”

The committee will live-stream the hearing on its website.

“Testimony from these five cabinet secretaries will support a comprehensive public discussion with senators about the White House proposal for aligning federal resources with local infrastructure needs and helping complete projects faster,” said Thune.

He and fellow Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Thune have expressed intent to jointly draft a bill to modernize  the country’s transportation and communication networks.

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DOT Awards $500M in Federal TIGER Grants to 41 Transport Infrastructure Projects
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DOT Awards $500M in Federal TIGER Grants to 41 Transport Infrastructure Projects


DOT Awards $500M in Federal TIGER Grants to 41 Transport Infrastructure ProjectsThe Transportation Department has selected 41 road, transit, maritime and rail projects to receive nearly $500 million in total fiscal 2017 discretionary funds through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program.

DOT said Friday the FY 2017 TIGER program considered communities in the countryside, with more than 64 percent of the grants awarded to rural transportation access and safety enhancement projects.

The department awarded $39.2 million to tribal projects.

DOT chose the latest round of TIGER grant recipients after a competitive process and noted that the Consolidated Appropriations Act sets aside funds to fully cover the National Infrastructure Investments through Sept. 30, 2020.

Criteria for the selection are safety, state of good repair, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability, innovation, partnership and alignment with the administration’s infrastructure principles.

The program may offer discretionary grants from $5 million to $25 million and a minimum of $1 million for rural projects.

To date, DOT has invested $5.6 billion in surface transportation infrastructure projects over nine competitive rounds through the program.

Click here to view the department’s full list of FY 2017 TIGER awardees.

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Maj. Gen. Michael Brewer Appointed to Lead Air Force Operational Test & Evaluation Center
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Maj. Gen. Michael Brewer Appointed to Lead Air Force Operational Test & Evaluation Center


Maj. Gen. Michael Brewer Appointed to Lead Air Force Operational Test & Evaluation Center
Michael Brewer

Maj. Gen. Michael Brewer, director for strategic plans, programs and analyses at the Air Force Materiel Command, has been assigned as commander of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center.

Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, announced Brewer’s new assignment in a Defense Department press release published Friday

In his current role, Brewer oversees the Program Objective Memorandum process for AFMC’s agile combat support function and weapon systems sustainment components.

He also oversees work to update the ACS Service Core Function Master Plan annually as well as strategic basing, lessons learned, enterprise analyses and transformational efforts across the command.

His previous assignments included roles as commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base; assistant for global positioning system and navigation warfare at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration; and commander of the Arnold Engineering Development Center.

Brewer has logged more than 3,200 flying hours with the F-111, F-15E and F-16 platforms.

He also flew F-111 and F-15E in combat missions.

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Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves: MDA Eyes Space-Based Sensors Against Hypersonic Threats
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Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves: MDA Eyes Space-Based Sensors Against Hypersonic Threats


Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves: MDA Eyes Space-Based Sensors Against Hypersonic Threats
Samuel Greaves

Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency, has said MDA needs space-based sensors to detect and monitor hypersonic threats, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

Greaves said Tuesday at the McAleese/Credit Suisse conference that hypersonics need close monitoring because they are unpredictable.

“What we are looking towards is to move the sensor architecture to space and use that advantage of space, in coordination with our ground assets, to remove the gaps,” he said at the event.

He noted that continuous monitoring is needed amid the rising use of countermeasure systems by adversaries on ballistic missiles in addition to hypersonic threats.

Greaves, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, said MDA aims to work with the U.S. Air Force on a space-based sensor system that can be pushed to achieve technology readiness level 6.

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