MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics

10/08/2026

Margaret Hamilton, the profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA's Apollo program, passed away on Sep. 30, 2026. She was 90.

Hamilton left an indelible mark on computer science and space exploration. She had a talent for leadership, as well as a keen instinct for problem-solving and critical thinking – skills that will be forever remembered for enabling the “giant leap” that put humankind on the moon. She was also an entrepreneur, a trailblazing advocate for software engineering as a discipline, and an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe.

Reflecting on what she and her team accomplished, she said: “Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”

Hamilton’s many awards and honors include the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom; the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award; the Computer History Museum Fellow Award; the National Aviation Hall of Fame; and the Women of NASA LEGO set.

Read Hamilton’s obituary in MIT News: https://ow.ly/Y9zg50ZVHfW

10/07/2026

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) could fly deep into a raging wildfire, avoiding flare-ups and falling branches to gather critical information for rescuers. But in such a dangerous environment, a UAV could easily be damaged or destroyed by debris.

To help UAVs operate safely and reliably in changing environments, researchers in the Aerospace Controls Laboratory led by Prof. Jon How have developed SANDO, an autonomous trajectory-planning system that mathematically guarantees a UAV’s flight path will remain collision-free in unknown, dynamic environments.

“In the hardest possible environment, where the UAV has no map of the area and there are unknown obstacles moving around, we established a mathematical guarantee of safety,” says Kota Kondo SM ’23, PhD ’26, lead author on the paper. “You could use it in any environment, without a map, and you know the UAV is not going to crash into anything.”

Learn more on MIT News:

A new trajectory planning system developed by MIT researchers formally guarantees that an uncrewed aerial vehicle’s flight path will remain safe from collisions, even in unmapped environments with unknown moving obstacles.

10/07/2026

A huge thank you to Tory Bruno, president of National Security at Blue Origin, for delivering the 2026 Minta Martin Lecture, titled “The space economy revolution that will change our human destiny.” It was a great opportunity for the AeroAstro community to hear an industry professional’s perspective on the rapidly growing space domain, its economic implications, and the future of humanity beyond Earth.

Watch the lecture: https://ow.ly/6hCw50ZUGwC

10/06/2026

Accomplishing some of NASA’s top priorities would be difficult, if not impossible, with the traditional tools at its disposal. Jake Hecla, Assistant Professor in AeroAstro and Nuclear Science and Engineering, talks with Aerospace America about plans to leverage nuclear power and propulsion for new space-based objectives across the globe.

“We see a class of capabilities that are being developed, which cannot be met with solar power, and they’re being developed by our geopolitical adversaries,” Hecla says. “That provides significant mission pull.”

Read more:

Over the past seven decades, a variety of U.S. space nuclear power and propulsion initiatives have failed to reach orbit. NASA is betting the combination of matured technology and regulatory changes will enable success this time around. Jon Kelvey tells the story. By Jon Kelvey | [email protected]...

10/05/2026

The next aerospace startup could start with a problem no one has solved yet. Or an opportunity the industry hasn’t seen coming.

In “Entrepreneurship in Aerospace and Mobility Systems,” taught by Prof. David Mindell, MIT students spent the semester interviewing more than 50 leaders across the industry, generating a new aerospace-specific report that explores where the sector is headed, what customers actually need, and where entrepreneurs may – or may not – find the next big opportunities.

The report, “Entrepreneurship in Aerospace,” argues that the volume of capital, talent, and policy attention directed toward aerospace is “structurally different from any prior point in the industry’s history,” creating a pivotal moment for the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors.

From MIT News:

Students in an MIT aerospace entrepreneurship class interviewed more than 50 industry leaders to create a guide to the new space economy, exploring aerospace startups, venture capital, commercial space, innovation, investment, and the future of space entrepreneurship.

09/23/2026

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been named the No. 1 university in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. MIT also ranked #1 for undergraduate research and creative projects, and in aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering.

More on MIT News:

MIT tops U.S. News and World Report’s 2026-27 rankings of the nation’s best colleges and universities.

09/22/2026

Congratulations to Prof. Carmen Guerra-Garcia on being elected to the Class of 2027 Associate Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics! Prof. Guerra-Garcia, who directs the Aerospace Plasma Group at AeroAstro, is recognized “For pioneering contributions to the physics and engineering of electrical discharges in aerospace environments, enabling new capabilities in lightning protection and plasma-assisted combustion.”

AIAA Associate Fellows “have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.” Only 17% of AIAA members are ever selected for this grade.

Read the full announcement: https://ow.ly/w1Gs50ZQ9a8

09/18/2026

“I get to work in a really cool lab and develop exciting experiments. I get ownership over an entire experimental system, and then I get to connect that to performance requirements for a future Mars system. That’s just the dream.”

PhD candidate Lanie McKinney is building technology to convert the Red Planet’s atmosphere into propellant for bringing astronauts home. The Oklahoma native uses cold plasma in her research to split carbon dioxide into oxygen and other products, pairing the plasma reactor with an oxygen-selective membrane to extract the oxygen before it recombines.

McKinney works in the Aerospace Plasma Group with advisor Prof. Carmen Guerra-Garcia.

Read more on MIT News:

MIT PhD candidate Lanie McKinney is developing technologies that could help humans explore Mars and return safely home. She is interested in using the resources already available on the planet to provide life support as well as propellant for the return journey.

09/09/2026

Predicting a self-driving car’s mistakes: Researchers in the Interactive Robotics Group and the autonomous vehicle technology company Motional have developed a new method that translates an autonomous vehicle’s internal decision-making into concepts humans can understand, helping people better anticipate its behavior and engineers identify failures.

“Instead of just wondering why the car stopped, having real-time data provides feedback that lets you test the system during deployment,” says lead author Eoin Kenny.

Learn more on MIT News:

The CW-Net technique explains the behavior of an autonomous vehicle, using concepts a human can easily understand. Researchers found these explanations helped drivers predict how a vehicle would behave in surprising situations.

09/08/2026

After working her way up from flight controls engineer to an executive role at Sikorsky Aircraft, Stella Jang Litwinowicz SM ’03’s successful career in aerospace engineering led her back to the classroom – this time as a professor of engineering and mathematics at Connecticut State Community College Housatonic in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“This is the most important work I’ve ever done in my life,” Litwinowicz says. “As long as there is a student who needs me, I’m going to keep doing this.”

Read more from Slice of MIT:

A MIT alum pivots from being an executive at Sikorsky Aircraft to teaching at a community college.Read more.