Come join Virginia Air & Space Science Center, American Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics (AIAA), and The Viking Mars Missions Education & Preservation Project (VMMEPP) on July 18, 2026.
Celebrating NASA Langley Research Center’s Viking mission, a milestone in 250 years of American Mars exploration achievements. Hosted by Virginia Air & Space Science Center.
Visitors will enjoy meeting and attending talks with past and current Space Exploration Leaders and real Viking Mission Team Members who served on the first mission to Mars’ surface in 1976. Government and industry experts will share exciting work on future missions and students from institutions around the country will also share their research and experience interning at NASAs leading research facilities.
Events will begin at 10am and continue until closing at 4pm
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Please join us on May 12, 2026, for our monthly LAA General Membership and Board Meetings. We are honored to welcome Lori Ozoroski, Deputy Project Manager for Civil Supersonics, High-Speed Flight Project, NASA Langley Research Center, who will provide a Project Update: QUESST X-59 Soars: A New Era in Supersonic Flight Begins presentation.
Lori Ozoroski manages the team that will conduct NASA’s Quesst mission’s acoustic and validation testing as well as the community overflight tests. Ms. Ozoroski has more than 35 years of experience in commercial supersonic aircraft design and design methodologies under many supersonic projects at NASA. She was the systems analysis technical lead in NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology (CST) Project for 12 years before being named as the project manager in 2019 and is now the Deputy Manager for Civil Supersonics under the newly formed High Speed Flight Project.
She has been involved in the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project since its inception, serving as airframe lead for concept design studies and formulation studies through the critical design review for the X-59 in 2019.
Prior to joining NASA in 1994, Ms. Ozoroski worked as a research engineer for Lockheed Martin Engineering & Sciences LLC.
Ms. Ozoroski has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in Centre County, Pennsylvania.
NASA’s Artemis II Crew is currently at Kennedy Space Center where they are quarantining ahead of next week’s launch window that opens on April 1st. Below are Artemis II resources providing additional information and updates about the mission.
In addition, here’s a YouTube link highlighting contributions to the Artemis II mission by NASA’s Langley Research Center: https://youtu.be/gKLH1x-StoA.
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, Artemis II is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars. The Artemis II test flight is the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis program. Under Artemis, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
During the test flight, four astronauts – NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – will conduct an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon. The crew represents the best of humanity – explorers daring to forge new frontiers in space. This mission will send astronauts farther from Earth than any human has ever been, and it’ll be the first to take humans to deep space in more than 50 years since NASA’s Apollo Program. Science investigations during the test flight will assess how the crew responds to the deep space environment during future missions as we explore the Moon and travel to Mars.
The Artemis II mission is a test flight designed to enable NASA to test and learn about systems needed to keep astronauts safe on their journey to and from the Moon, including Orion’s life support systems never tested in space with humans before. At the conclusion of the test flight, the crew members will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, where a NASA and Department of War team will extract them from Orion and transport them back to a U.S. Navy ship ahead of their return to land.
Hope you are able to watch some or all of this historic crewed test launch with the resources included above.
GO ARTEMIS II!!
Did you retire from NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) between January 1, 2025, and January 31, 2026?
Please join us May 1 for a Langley Alumni Association and NASA LaRC Retirement Celebration!
Please email info@larcalumni.org for additional details!
Video and slides from these presentations have now been posted on our Events page. Photos from the presentation are in the Gallery.
Please join us on April 14, 2026, for our monthly LAA General Membership and Board Meetings. We are honored to welcome LAA’s own Rick Ross, who will talk about “Charlatans, Swindlers and Bilks.”
Rick Ross joined the NASA Langley team in 1986 as a contractor with Wyle Laboratories doing development and support of data acquisition systems for the National Transonic Facility (NTF), and later for other Langley wind tunnels and facilities. In 1997, Rick became a civil servant in Data Acquisition and Information Management Branch (DAIMB) within the Experimental Testing Technology Division.
In 2003, Rick joined the Mechanics and Durability Branch (MDB). Following a reorganization, he moved to the Mechanics of Structures and Materials Branch, which later became the Durability, Damage Tolerance, and Reliability Branch (DDTRB). While in DDTRB, Rick became an Associate Principal Investigator for the Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) project, then served as Project Scientist for the Vehicle Systems Safety Technologies (VSST) project.
In 2015, Rick transitioned to the Research Directorate (RD) as the Contracting Officer’s Representative for the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA). Rick concluded his career as the Senior Contracts Manager, overseeing all RD-led research contracts. Rick retired at the end of 2020 during the height of COVID-19. He now enjoys hobbies including photography, building projects, and taking classes at Virginia Peninsula Community College for personal enjoyment and continuing education.
NASA Langley Research Center hosted an Aerial Drone Competition on February 21, 2026, for middle and high school students. Students competed in teamwork, piloting, and autonomous flight missions. A special thank you to the LAA members who volunteered their time and support –Sharon Monica Jones, Louis Glaab, Lil Richwine, Kathy Ferrare, Linda Bangert, Mary DiJoseph, Dave Hinton, Lawrence Taylor, John Berry, and Christina Moats-Xavier (not pictured). Their responsibilities included working the check-in desk, serving as a referee, pit administration, lunch assistance, inspection table support, and team queueing. Feedback from the LAA volunteers highlighted how exciting it was to watch the teams collaborate, noting the students’ enthusiasm and strong competitive spirit throughout the event. Additional pictures of the event are posted here.
