NASA names four astronauts heading to the moon at Houston event

ready for liftoff

The history-making team was announced at Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo via LinkedIn

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced the four astronauts who will be onboard the Artemis II mission around the moon yesterday at an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The 10-day mission is slated to put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.

“For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals – the Artemis II crew – will be the first humans to fly to the vicinity of the Moon. Among the crew are the first woman, first person of color, and first Canadian on a lunar mission, and all four astronauts will represent the best of humanity as they explore for the benefit of all,” says JSC Director Vanessa Wyche. “This mission paves the way for the expansion of human deep space exploration and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industry and academic partnerships and the Artemis Generation.”

The crew assignments include:

  • Commander Reid Wiseman, who has logged more than 165 days in space in two trips. He previously served as a flight engineer aboard the International Station and most recently served as chief of the Astronaut Office from December 2020 until November 2022.
  • Pilot Victor Glover, who served as pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission in 2021. This will be his second trip to space.
  • Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, who set the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks. This will be her second flight into space.
  • Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen, representing Canada. Hansen is a colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and former fighter pilot and has served as Capcom in NASA's Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center. He was the first Canadian to lead a NASA astronaut class. This will be his first flight into space.

Meet the four astronauts who will return humans to the moon. Photo courtesy of NASA

“NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, each has their own story, but, together, they represent our creed: E pluribus unum – out of many, one," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. "Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers–the Artemis Generation.”

Artemis II is slated to build upon the uncrewed Artemis I mission that was completed in December. The crew will be NASA's first to aboard the agency's deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft. They will test the spacecrafts' systems to ensure they operate as planned for humans in deep space before setting course for the moon.

NASA's Artemis program collaborates with commercial and international partners with the goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon. Lessons learned from the missions are planned to be used to send the first astronauts to Mars.

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Big winners: 5 Houston companies that raised the most funding in 2024

year in review

Editor's note: As 2024 comes to a close, InnovationMap is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston innovation. When it came to the money raised in Houston, these five startups raised the most, according to reporting done by InnovationMap. Be sure to click on each story to read the full article.

Fervo Energy secures $600M in multiple rounds

The latest deal brings Fervo's total funding secured this year to around $600 million. Photo courtesy of Fervo

Fervo secured a lot of fresh funding this year to deliver on its 100x growth plans. Most recently, the company announced that it has raised $255 million in new funding and capital availability. A $135 million corporate equity round was led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund II and a $120 million letter of credit and term loan facility was granted by Mercuria, an independent energy and commodity group that previously invested in the company. Read more about the round.

In February, Fervo secured $244 million in a financing round led by Devon Energy, and in September, the company received a $100 million bridge loan for the first phase of its ongoing project in Utah. This project, known as Project Cape, represents a 100x growth opportunity for Fervo, as Latimer explained to InnovationMap earlier this year. As of now, Project Cape is fully permitted up to 2 GW and will begin generating electricity in 2026, per the company.

Solugen scores $213.6M to support new facility

The new Solugen facility is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by up to 18 million kilograms. Photo courtesy of Solugen

Houston-based Solugen secured financing from the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office in June to support its mission of producing clean chemicals.

The LPO's $213.6 million loan guarantee will go toward the construction of the company's 500,000-square-foot Bioforge Marshall facility in Southwest Minnesota, which broke ground in April and will produce bio-based chemical products to be used in wastewater treatment, construction, agriculture, and the energy sector. According to Solugen, the facility is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by up to 18 million kilograms.

"American manufacturing is at a turning point, and we are proud to have the opportunity to work with the DOE in bringing critical chemical production capabilities onshore to communities like Marshall," Gaurab Chakrabarti, CEO of Solugen, says in a news release. "By scaling cutting-edge technologies, we are meeting domestic demand for innovative solutions and setting global standards for sustainable biomanufacturing." Read more about the round.

Cart.com brings in $130M in financing, series C extension

Cart.com announced a $25 million series C extension round and $105 million in debt refinancing from investment manager BlackRock. Photo courtesy of Cart.com

While 2024 was less lucrative for Houston-based Cart.com when it comes to VC activity, the scaleup did pull in significant funding.

The company, which operates a multichannel commerce platform, secured $105 million in debt refinancing from investment manager BlackRock in July.

The debt refinancing follows a recent $25 million series C extension round, bringing Cart.com’s series C total to $85 million. The scaleup’s valuation now stands at $1.2 billion, making it one of the few $1 billion-plus “unicorns” in the Houston area. Read more about the round.

Procyrion closes $57.7M series E to fund journey to FDA approval, commercialization

Procyrion has announced the closing of its series E round of funding. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-born and bred medical device company, Procyrion, has completed its series E with a raise of $57.7 million, including the conversion of $10 million of interim financing.

Procyrion is the company behind Aortix, a pump designed to be placed in the descending thoracic aorta of heart failure patients, which has been shown to improve cardiac performance in seriously ill subjects. The money raised will allow the company to proceed with a the DRAIN-HF Study, a pivotal trial that will be used for eventual FDA approval and commercialization.

The Aortix is the brainchild of Houston cardiologist Reynolds Delgado. According to Procyrion’s CSO, Jace Heuring, Delgado, gained some of his experience with devices for the heart working with legendary Texas Heart Institute surgeon O.H. “Bud” Frazier. He filed his first patents related to the Aortix in 2005. Read more about the round.

Utility Global raises $53M series C investment

Utility Global’s technology enables reduction of greenhouse gas emissions along with generation of low-carbon fuels and chemicals. Photo courtesy of Utility Global

Houston-based Utility Global, a maker of decarbonization-focused gas production technology, has raised $53 million in an ongoing series C round.

Among the participants in the round are Canada’s Ontario Power Generation Pension Plan, the XCarb Innovation Fund operated by Luxembourg-based steel company ArcelorMittal, Houston-based investment firm Ara Partners, and Saudi Aramco’s investment arm.

Also, Utility Global and ArcelorMittal have agreed to develop at least one decarbonization facility at an ArcelorMittal steel plant. Read more about the round.

Houston-based startup secures fresh funding led by local investor to expand HVAC, plumbing platform

money moves

Houston-based SmartAC.com, which provides a customer loyalty management platform for contractors, has raised a follow-on round from Mercury Fund and other investors. The dollar amount of the round wasn’t disclosed.

An October filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicates SmartAC.com planned to raise $8.2 million in venture capital. Of that sum, about $4 million had already been raised, the company reported, and nearly $4.2 million remained to be raised.

SmartAC.com's platform enables contractors in the HVAC and plumbing industries monitor, manage, and optimize their maintenance memberships through advanced sensors, AI-driven diagnostics, and proactive alerts.

“Growing a business in the trades is all about customer loyalty, and loyalty is driven by optimizing the customer’s experience,” Josh Teekell, founder and CEO of SmartAC.com, says in a news release. “SmartAC.com was built to perfect the experience of home comfort through data-driven insights that bring long-term value to homeowners and contractors alike.”

SmartAC.com says the new funding will enable expansion of its platform.

“Amid rising consumer demand for ‘smart home’ innovations, SmartAC.com is addressing a critical need for more sophistication in HVAC and plumbing through a technology-driven strategy,” says Heath Butler, a partner at Mercury Fund.

In 2020, SmartAC.com emerged from stealth mode and announced a $10 million series A round. The company raised a $22 million series B round in 2023.

Houston scientists create first profile of Mars’ radiant energy budget, revealing climate insights on Earth

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Scientists at the University of Houston have found a new understanding of climate and weather on Mars.

The study, which was published in a new paper in AGU Advances and will be featured in AGU’s science magazine EOS, generated the first meridional profile of Mars’ radiant energy budget (REB). REB represents the balance or imbalance between absorbed solar energy and emitted thermal energy across latitudes. An energy surplus can lead to global warming, and a deficit results in global cooling, which helps provide insights to Earth's atmospheric processes too. The profile of Mars’ REB influences weather and climate patterns.

The study was led by Larry Guan, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UH's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics under the guidance of his advisors Professor Liming Li from the Department of Physics and Professor Xun Jiang from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and other planetary scientists. UH graduate students Ellen Creecy and Xinyue Wang, renowned planetary scientists Germán Martínez, Ph.D. (Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute), Anthony Toigo, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University) and Mark Richardson, Ph.D. (Aeolis Research), and Prof. Agustín Sánchez-Lavega (Universidad del País, Vasco, Spain) and Prof. Yeon Joo Lee (Institute for Basic Science, South Korea) also assisted in the project.

The profile of Mars’ REB is based on long-term observations from orbiting spacecraft. It offers a detailed comparison of Mars’ REB to that of Earth, which has shown differences in the way each planet receives and radiates energy. Earth shows an energy surplus in the tropics and a deficit in the polar regions, while Mars exhibits opposite behavioral patterns.

The surplus is evident in Mars’ southern hemisphere during spring, which plays a role in driving the planet’s atmospheric circulation and triggering the most prominent feature of weather on the planet, global dust storms. The storms can envelop the entire planet, alter the distribution of energy, and provide a dynamic element that affects Mars’ weather patterns and climate.

The research team is currently examining long-term energy imbalances on Mars and how it influences the planet’s climate.

“The REB difference between the two planets is truly fascinating, so continued monitoring will deepen our understanding of Mars’ climate dynamics,” Li says in a news release.

The global-scale energy imbalance on Earth was recently discovered, and it contributes to global warming at a “magnitude comparable to that caused by increasing greenhouse gases,” according to the study. Mars has an environment that differs due to its thinner atmosphere and lack of anthropogenic effects.

“The work in establishing Mars’ first meridional radiant energy budget profile is noteworthy,” Guan adds. “Understanding Earth’s large-scale climate and atmospheric circulation relies heavily on REB profiles, so having one for Mars allows critical climatological comparisons and lays the groundwork for Martian meteorology.”

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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