News Releases

The MESSENGER spacecraft has captured the first portrait of our Solar System from the inside looking out. Comprised of 34 images, the mosaic provides a complement to the Solar System portrait — that one from the outside looking in — taken by Voyager 1 in 1990.

After more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will move into orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011. The durable spacecraft — carrying seven science instruments and fortified against the blistering environs near the Sun — will be the first to orbit the innermost planet.

Victor McCrary, Science and Technology Business Area executive at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., will receive the Scientist of the Year award at the 2011 Black Engineer of the Year national conference in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17–19.

Cyril John O’Brien, career journalist, oldest known living Marine Corps war correspondent, and former media relations head at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, died January 31 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., from natural causes associated with coronary heart disease. He was 92.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., has again been named to Baltimore magazine’s “Best Places To Work” list. Additionally, because APL has received this honor many times before, the Laboratory is now a member of the inaugural “Best Places To Work” Hall of Fame.

Timothy J. Galpin has been appointed Assistant Director for Programs at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., and in that capacity will oversee APL’s diversified portfolio of more than 600 engineering, research and development programs.

Kurt Lindstrom has been named business area executive for Civilian Space at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover is getting important tips from a mineral-mapping instrument aboard an orbiting spacecraft as it explores areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments.

Richard T. Roca, director emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., has been inducted as a full member of the Pan American Academy of Engineering.