National News
Danny Olivas to Kick-Off UTEP’s New NASA Space Exploration Center
By HE
Feb 3, 2010, 16:29

Astronaut and UTEP alumnus Danny Olivas will be on his alma mater's campus to celebrate the opening of the new UTEP Center for Space Exploration Technology Research on Feb. 3. Olivas will present an STS-128 flag and patch to be put on display at the new center. Both traveled to space on his most recent space shuttle mission, STS-128, last August.
 
UTEP was recently awarded a five-year, $5 million grant by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish multi-disciplinary engineering and scientific research that will contribute to NASA programs.

The UTEP Center for Space Exploration Technology Research will work closely with other NASA research facilities, including the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M. Research will include advanced capabilities in environmentally friendly propulsion technologies and the use of natural resources on other planets and the moon to create spacecraft fuel and other materials. UTEP faculty from the College of Engineering and the Department of Geological Sciences will collaborate on the research.

UTEP was one of six minority universities selected from 35 applicants for this grant. The award comes via the NASA Group 5 University Research Center program, which fosters new aerospace science and technology concepts with a goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities who receive degrees in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.