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All packed up and ready for its long-awaited trip, NASA’s CONTOUR spacecraft left home in Maryland today for Cape Canaveral, Fla., site of its scheduled July 1 launch toward an unprecedented comet study.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., will name its top inventions for 2001 and honor 182 researchers during its third annual Invention of the Year awards ceremony.

Board Chair Dr. Jane B. Schuchhardt thanked APL for its “immeasurable contributions to this school systems and the children of this county.”

The awards will be given during a ceremony at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

MESSENGER — which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging — passed a thorough four-day critical design review.

Jason Bunn, of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Most Promising Engineer on Feb. 16 at the 16th annual Black Engineer Awards Conference.

U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine is highlighting The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Chris Thompson for his technology expertise and the Laurel, Maryland-based Laboratory for its diversity efforts.

New Horizons mission planners have developed a new strategy that could trim nearly a year off their original schedule to send a spacecraft to the solar system’s outermost planet.

APL-NAV is a fully integrated flight management package that can graphically plan surveys on user-configurable maps, control system hardware, provide real-time navigation, track real-time coverage, manage pilot displays, and provide operator training.

With its post-launch engineering checkouts complete, NASA’s TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics) spacecraft is now globally studying one of Earth’s final atmospheric frontiers.