Alumnus Mike Moses (MSAAE '95) has been named president of Virgin Galactic. Moses was a student of Prof. Stephen Heister. He was awarded the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Outstanding Aerospace Engineer award in 2011.

One team of students from each section of the Introduction to Aerospace Design course was recognized for its work. The course was taught by AAE Associate Professor Karen Marais.

AAE PhD student Arnau Pons has been appointed as the Congress Manager of the Space Generation Congress 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. Pons will lead a team of international students and young professionals coordinating the organization and preparation for SGC 2017, which will be hosted at the University of Adelaide from September 21st to 23rd.

AAE Associate Professor Timothee Pourpoint has been selected as an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Pourpoint will be inducted with other new associate fellows from around the world at a ceremony during the AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, TX on January 9, 2017.

Professor Steven Collicott and students from his Zero-Gravity Flight Experiment class have been helping students from West Lafayette's Cumberland Elementary School discover if fireflies light up in space. The Zero-Gravity Glow Experiment is scheduled on the first Blue Origin rocket flight of 2017.

AAE Professor Dan Dumbacher says the transfer of propellant, the budget and the effects of long stays in space are still challenges facing SpaceX’s proposal to colonize Mars. Prof. Dumbacher speaks with Aviation Week’s Frank Morring in this podcast.

David Spencer (BSAAE'89, MSAAE'91) joined AAE as an Associate Professor in Fall 2016 after six years as a Professor of Practice at Georgia Tech. Prior to that, Spencer spent 17 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

AAE Professor Steven Collicott has been appointed to the Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space (CBPSS). The group is a standing committee of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

AAE alumna Ashley (Ruic) Faires is the winner of the 2016 Purdue Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) Young Engineering Alumnus Award. Ashley graduated with a BSAAE in 2006, and is presently a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy.

Charles C. Bock, Jr. (BSAE '49) joins aviation pioneers such as join Wilbur and Orville Wright, plane builder Glenn L. Martin, and astronauts Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7) and Peggy Whitson (International Space Station) in the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame.