The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ('NASA') and MSGI Security Solutions Inc. announced under the terms of two Space Act Agreements, it will partner with MSGI, to advance solar cell technology and develop nano-chemical sensors. The solar cells will use semiconductor materials instead of silicon crystals and prepare them in a nanostructured form for greater efficiency. NASA and MSGI also will use nanotechnology and carbon-based chemical sensing to detect gas and organic vapors found in human breath. NASA developed these two revolutionary nanotechnologies that now have promising alternative applications. Solar cells that powered space missions now may compete with conventional electricity as an energy source. An electronic sniffing sensor, used to monitor the air onboard the Space Shuttle, may be used for medical diagnoses and environmental monitoring.

Deborah Urbanski has been appointed as director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Houston. Urbanski brings years of experience in mediation and law to her new position where she will oversee policies and regulations that impact JSC's employment and diversity management.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration has named Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., as the director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lightfoot had served as the acting director of the center since March. From 2007 to 2009, Lightfoot was deputy director of Marshall and shared responsibility for managing the center. Marshall has played a critical role in advancing NASA's exploration mission, including development of the Ares I rocket and the Ares V heavy cargo launch vehicles and a lunar landing mission. Lightfoot served as manager of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office at Marshall from 2005 to 2007. He was responsible for overseeing the manufacture, assembly and operation of the primary shuttle propulsion elements: the main engines, external tank, solid rocket boosters and reusable solid rocket motors.