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January 10, 2020.

In March, Celeste Ford will be honored at the 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards, an annual tribute to the world’s top female entrepreneurs.

This award is widely considered one of the most esteemed recognitions for women business owners. The presentations will take place at a Gala Dinner during the final evening of the 18th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration & Conference, to be held at the Wyndham Clearwater Beach Resort in Florida from Sunday, March 29 to Tuesday, March 31. 

“Celeste Ford demonstrates the leadership qualities of our Enterprising Women of the Year:  as Founder and Board Chair of a successful company, as a passionate mentor of women and girls on the path to entrepreneurship, and as a committed contributor to her community, the nation and the world,” said Monica Smiley, Publisher and CEO of Enterprising Women magazine.

Celeste was one of only four honorees in the “over $50 million in annual sales” category. This is a great recognition of Celeste’s leadership as the company enters its 25th year of operation.

Read Stellar’s Press Release here: https://www.prweb.com/releases/stellar_solutions_chair_celeste_ford_named_a_winner_of_the_2020_enterprising_women_of_the_year_awards/prweb16824339.htm

December 20, 2019.

As we enter a new year and decade as a company, community and nation, it is a good time to reflect on the collective achievements and lessons that will guide our path forward. The avenue of space exploration continues to provide many of our greatest examples of both – with countless instances of courage, ingenuity and resilience that continue to define the course of human history.

Today’s landmark mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is a vivid reminder of this incredible challenge that we all face. Starliner successfully lifted off on its first test flight to the International Space Station, but failed to reach an operational orbit. As said so eloquently by President John F. Kennedy as he kicked off the space race of the 1960s, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”  

Space has always been an incredibly hard thing to do. NASA experienced this immediately during the Apollo Program but persevered toward to the ultimate achievement of the Apollo 11 landing on the lunar surface. More recently, we have observed the efforts of New Space companies like SpaceX as they lean-in, innovate, learn and adjust course along the way toward groundbreaking success.

At Stellar Solutions, we can relate to this inherent risk because we’ve experienced it firsthand. This company was founded to provide the critical services that form the backbone of many of today’s aerospace, defense, intelligence and commercial systems.

We are providing a wide variety of engineering support for the Orion Crew Module and the Ascent Abort-2, Artemis-1 and Artemis-2 missions of the Space Launch System which will extend our presence beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space. Our team is heavily involved in providing program level support to NASA in its efforts to work with commercial partners on systems that will send the first woman and next man to the Moon. What an exciting time to be in aerospace, with so many opportunities and possibilities to help transform our way of life and understanding of the universe. 

Kennedy continued on to say that the goal of pursuing the Moon “will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

These words still ring true today, more than ever. In celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this year and looking forward to the next five decades of human spaceflight, it is clear that we are all in this together – partners and competitors alike. So many small and large companies have dedicated themselves to delivering innovation on the ground and in space that will benefit all of humanity, with much more to come. I wish to extend our gratitude and best wishes for success to The Boeing Company and other commercial trailblazers who are helping lead the way to the next era of space exploration.

About the Author: Michael S. Lencioni is the Chief Executive Officer of Stellar Solutions, Inc.

November 14, 2019.

Stellar Solutions and its humanitarian R&D initiative QuakeFinder have just published landmark research on earthquake forecasting in Computers & Geosciences, the peer-reviewed academic journal.

The study, which examines electromagnetic earthquake precursors covering the major faults in California from 2005 to 2018, advances QuakeFinder’s research into predictive indications in Earth’s magnetic field that may be identified several days prior to an earthquake. The manuscript, “An algorithmic framework for investigating the temporal relationship of magnetic field pulses and earthquakes applied to California,”  completed peer review and received final acceptance for immediate online and print publication at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2019.104317.

To our knowledge, this is the largest ever study of electromagnetic earthquake precursors. The treated data set exceeds prior published research by over an order of magnitude, and suggests, with 98.6% (2.2 sigma) confidence, that the magnetic field exhibits precursory behavior in the period of four to 12 days prior to earthquakes. This paper represents a major step forward in the challenge faced by QuakeFinder to conclusively demonstrate the existence of these precursor signals and then work toward isolation that will allow individual earthquakes to be forecast. While this approach is not yet accurate enough to forecast individual quakes, research indicates that results will improve with enhanced signal processing. Prior warning based on seismic observations currently comes only seconds before earthquakes that kill and injure thousands of people and cause billions of dollars in damage every year. 

Read the full press release here: https://www.prweb.com/releases/stellar_solutions_quakefinder_earthquake_forecasting_research_is_published/prweb16718663.htm .

November 9, 2019

The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community in February 2018 indicated that “Adversaries and malign actors will use all instruments of national power—including information and cyber means—to shape societies and markets, international rules and institutions, and international hot spots to their advantage,” and that “China and Russia will seek spheres of influence and to check US appeal and influence in their regions.”

There are few greater spheres of influence than the areas of space inhabited by numerous orbiting assets of nation-state, non-state, and commercial space organizations for services and information, such as “imagery, weather, communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing for intelligence, military, scientific, or business purposes.”

In August 2018, Vice President Mike Pence spoke to a Pentagon audience about the Future of the U.S. Military in Space, and described the uncertainty surrounding space capabilities being developed by foreign nations.  He said, “Our adversaries have been working to bring new weapons of war into space itself.  In 2007, China launched a missile that tracked and destroyed one of its own satellites — a highly provocative demonstration of China’s growing capability to militarize space.

“Russia has been designing an airborne laser to disrupt our space-based system.  And it claims to be developing missiles that can be launched from an aircraft mid-flight to destroy American satellites.

“Both China and Russia have been conducting highly sophisticated on-orbit activities that could enable them to maneuver their satellites into close proximity of ours, posing unprecedented new dangers to our space systems.”

This specific public acknowledgement of this space protection problem (also see CHALLENGES TO SECURITY IN SPACE – Defense Intelligence Agency) was an important moment for our nation.  In response to these concerns, the United States established several new organizations; specifically, United States Space Command (USSPACECOM), and Joint Task Force-Space Defense (JTF-SD).   JTF-SD is one of two subordinate commands to USSPACECOM which was recently formed with a mission to conduct, in unified action with mission partners, space superiority operations to deter aggression, defend capability, and defeat adversaries throughout the continuum of conflict. JTF-SD executes its protect and defend mission through its operations center, the National Space Defense Center, space domain awareness units and emerging space defense units.

Continuity of Operations and Space Protection & Resiliency are an important focus that will help ensure the long-term physical and cyber security of our nation and its allies. At Stellar Solutions, we believe that the space environment is at a critical juncture where we need to do more than “move the needle” – we must transcend our space protection capabilities to “capture the high ground” and ensure the security of national assets ahead of threats. Stellar Solutions has placed increased emphasis on this critical mission domain with associated resources made available through our pool of exemplary subject matter experts.

All of this is a fundamental part of enabling clients to innovate successfully–providing deep industry knowledge through nimble, handpicked teams of strategists, systems and aerospace engineers, and technical specialists.  These best practices are based on a committed focus on the critical needs of customers including the Department of Defense and other key Government agencies, and providing instrumental support in this vital mission area over the past 10 years.  Embracing Agile methodologies and supporting accelerated fulfillment of products and processes facilitates the delivery of high-impact performance on Earth and in space. As the Vice President noted, there are countless individuals within military, civilian and commercial organizations striving to maintain and secure the nation’s space systems. Working together to combine this diverse expertise will enable the nation to successfully “confront the emerging threats in the boundless expanse of space”.

About the authors: 

• Walt Eilers is Vice President, Intel, at Stellar Solutions, Inc. He served almost 23 years in the United States Air Force, with over 38 years leading space and ground intelligence and communication system programs. Walt leads a diverse team providing Acquisition, System Engineering and Integration, Command and Control, and Ops support to major space and ground systems. He also oversees Intel business development and resource management for Stellar. 
• Dave Rose is a Senior Systems Engineer for Stellar Solutions and a recognized space protection expert.  Dave supports critical missions for Intel customers and is at the forefront of delivering key technical advice to the space community.

October 31, 2019.

Last week,  Washington DC was the scene of the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the annual fall event that connects key players in the development and exploration of outer space. Public and private organizations from all across the world were in attendance, as well as noted policymakers, thought leaders, advocates, and visionaries . NASA had a major presence at this event, and many of Stellar’s Civil Programs staff who support the TPMS contract at NASA Headquarters were intendance along with Richard Rogers, VP for Civil Programs and Mohamed Yousif,  Director for MENA (Middle East/North Africa).

Stellar Presenters and Co-Authors

As part of the IAC 2019 Technical Programme, several Stellar personnel presented or were co-authors of technical papers.

A5 IAA SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN EXPLORATION OF SOLAR SYSTEM, Sess. 4-D2.8: Space Transp. Solutions for Deep Space

EmPowering Innovation: The Gateway Power and Propulsion Element Public-Private Partnership.. Ronald Ticker (NASA), Christopher Zavrel (Stellar), Kathleen Schubert (NASA), David Frate, (NASA), David Manzella (NASA) _______________________

B3 IAF HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT SYMPOSIUM, Session 1: Governmental Human Spaceflight Programs (Overview)

NASA’s Human Lunar Landing Strategy. Greg Chavers (NASA), Nantel Suzuki (NASA), Marshall Smith (NASA), Lisa Watson-Morgan (NASA), Steve Clarke (NASA), Walt Engelund (NASA), Lindsay Aitchison(NASA), Shawn McEniry,  Laura Means, Michael DeKlotz (Stellar), Shanessa Jackson (Stellar) _______________________

B3 IAF HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT SYMPOSIUM, Session 7. Advanced Systems, Technologies & Innovations for Human Spaceflight

NextSTEP Habitat Risk Reduction for Gateway. Tracy Gill (NASA), Michael Ching (Stellar), James Clawson (Stellar), Alexandra Cross (Stellar), Elisabeth Moore (NASA), Mark Dillard, NASA, Paul Kesslern (NASA), Douglas Craig (NASA) _______________________

D4. IAA SYMP. VISIONS & STRATEGIES FOR  FUTURE, Session 2: Contr. of Space Activities to Solving Global Societal Issues

Thriving In and From Space for All Humankind. Marguerite Broadwell (NASA), Shobhana Gupta (NASA), Denise Silimon-Hill (Stellar)  _______________________

E1. IAF SPACE EDUCATION & OUTREACH SYMPOSIUM, Session  5: Enabling the Future – Developing the Space Workforce

Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Challenge. Carol Galica (Stellar), John Guidi (NASA), Patrick Troutman (NASA), Shelley Spears (NIA), Stacy Dees (NIA) _______________________

E3. IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SPACE POLICY, REGULATIONS & ECONOMICS, Session 2. 50 Years After Apollo 11: The Future of

Women in Exploration: Lessons from the Past as Humanity Reaches Deep Space. Shanessa Jackson (Stellar), Patricia Knezek (NASA), Denise Silimon-Hill (Stellar), Alexandra Cross (Stellar) _______________________

E3. IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SPACE POLICY, REGULATIONS & ECONOMICS, Session 6. Economics of Procurement in Space

Gateway Program Acquisition Strategy Overview. Emma Lehnhardt (NASA),  Christopher Zavrel (Stellar), Douglas Craig (NASA), Nicole Hermann (NASA)  _______________________

In addition, numerous students affiliated with Stellar-supported NASA University Engagement programs presented as part of the Student Symposium.

NASA Exhibit Support

NASA presented three major exhibit areas including a primary agency exhibit, a “Driven To Explore” Mobile Exhibit, and Physical Sciences Informatics area.  The Stellar team at NASA HQ was instrumental in planning and staffing the NASA presence at IAC.

Denise Hill and Valerie Chabot	Mohamed Yousif
Mike Ching	Chris Zavrel
Zach Talpas

Program Highlights

In its prior 70 years, this major international conference has been held in the U.S. only four other times – the last being in 2002 which was the 53rd IAC in Houston. Before that, the 43rd IAC (1992) took place in DC, the 19th IAC (1968) was held in New York, and the 12th IAC (1961) occurred in DC. As Mike Lencioni previously noted,  this year the Honorable Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States (and chair of the National Space Council) delivered welcome remarks as part of the IAC Opening Ceremony for delegates.

Heads of Major Space Agencies were also in attendance:

• Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator
• Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director General of European Space Agency (ESA)
• Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
• Sylvain Laporte, President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
• Sergey Krikalev, Executive Director for Piloted Spaceflights for Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency)
• S. Somanath, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

Other ESA members were also heavily involved or represented, such as Belgian Space, Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), German Aerospace Center (DLR),  Italian Space Agency, Luxembourg Space Agency, Romanian Space Agency, Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), Polish Space Agency (POLSA), Swedish Space Corporation, and contingents representing Spain and the UK. In addition, many  new and emerging space agencies were represented at the conference, to include Australian Space Agency, Israel Space Agency (ISA), Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA), Singapore Space and Technology Association, South African National Space Agency (SANSA), and the New Zealand Space Agency (NZSA).

In addition, many of Stellar’s partners and customers took part in the congress—too many to name! 

Congratulations to the team for a job well done!