Rubicon® has joined the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Rubicon Founder & CEO, Nate Morris, will be appointed to the AIAA Corporate Strategic Advisory Committee. This newly re-organized committee meets with leaders from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and NASA, and opens the dialogue with AIAA leadership on the Institute’s initiatives.

“I am honored to join the Corporate Strategic Advisory Committee of AIAA and thrilled for Rubicon to become an AIAA member,” said Mr. Morris. “AIAA represents the vast legacy of air and space in the United States, and also its promising future. Together we can address how the world looks at waste and what we leave behind when we reach for the stars.”

Corporate members of AIAA include Airbus America, AWS, Astroscale, Blue Origin, GE Aviation, Gulfstream Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman, Rolls-Royce, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, among others.

Rubicon’s strategic partnership with AIAA will enhance the company’s initiatives focused on tackling the problem of space debris. Launched in May 2021, Rubicon’s Project Clear Constellation aims to generate industry-leading solutions to the ever-increasing challenge of space waste. According to a recent NASA study, there are approximately 8,000 metric tons of debris orbiting Earth. These waste materials vary in size from large to microscopic, but all move at such a high speed that they represent potentially mission-ending risk by penetrating everything from spacesuits to fuel tanks, and even the hulls of space shuttles. They are also a threat to scientific and commercial satellites that the world increasingly relies on for navigation, communication, security, weather tracking, and more.

The centerpiece of Project Clear Constellation is a competition in which accredited colleges and universities from across the United States are invited to submit design concepts for solutions to confront this problem, which grows ever more acute each day. Submissions will be judged by a panel of experts including Nate Morris, Dr. Jonathan C. McDowell, Astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Dr. Marla Geha, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale; Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale; Mike Rogers, former Member of the United States Congress and Chair of the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress’ National Security Space Program; and Rick Ambrose, Executive Vice President at Lockheed Martin Space. The winning design concept, to be announced in May 2022, will be awarded a $100,000 cash prize.

For more information, visit www.rubicon.com

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