Today’s Tidbits: March 13, 2018

Here are our tidbits for March 13, 2018:  meet Ultima Thule; WIA nominations open for 2018 awards; Bryce publishes new Start-Up Space Report.   Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.

Meet Ultima Thule

NASA’s New Horizons mission will already go down in history as the first spacecraft to visit Pluto, but its journey is far from over. After sending back stunning images of Pluto and its moons in 2015, New Horizons headed deeper into space and on New Year’s Eve will fly by a Kuiper Belt object that until today was known only as 2014 MU69.

Now, however, New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern has revealed that the object has a nickname — Ultima Thule.

And on this historic anniversary of the announcement of Pluto’s discovery our next New Horizons flyby target 2014 MU69 just got a nickname! Welcome Ultima Thule everyone! (Or Ultima for short!) https://t.co/9stksXU7Fd Hope you like it! #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/KJOwnI320T

— AlanStern (@AlanStern) March 13, 2018

NASA’s press release (click the link in the tweet) explains that “Thule was a mythical far-northern island in medieval literature and cartography” and Ultima Thule means “beyond Thule” meaning “beyond the borders of the known world.”  It is pronounced “ultima thoo-lee.”  The name was selected from 34,000 candidates suggested by 115,000 members of the public.  It was proposed by 40 members of the public and was one of the top vote-getters among the 37 names that reached the ballot.

Nominations Open for 2018 WIA Awards

Women in Aerospace (WIA) announced today that nominations are now open for its 2018 awards.  Nominations need to be made online and completed by June 19, 2018.  Winners will receive their awards at the annual WIA Awards Dinner on November 1, 2018 at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington, VA.  More information is available at:  http://www.womeninaerospace.org/events/awards/nomination.html

Awards are presented in the following categories:

• Achievement Award
• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Leadership Award
• Aerospace Educator Award
• Aerospace Awareness Award
• Outstanding Member Award
• Initiative-Inspiration-Impact Award

Bryce Publishes New Start-Up Space Report

Bryce Space and Technology has just published an update of its 2016 Start-Up Space report.   The report focuses on start-up space ventures and tracks “seed, venture, and private equity investment in start-up space ventures” from 2000-2017.

Bryce calculates that start-up space ventures have attracted over $18.4 billion in investment over that time period.

Download the report at:  https://brycetech.com/reports.html.

 

 

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