Starlab Space and Intuitive Machines were among five companies to secure a total of $47.7 million from the Texas Space Commission. Photo via starlab-space.com

Two Houston aerospace companies have collectively received $25 million in grants from the Texas Space Commission.

Starlab Space picked up a $15 million grant, and Intuitive Machines gained a $10 million grant, according to a Space Commission news release.

Starlab Space says the money will help it develop the Systems Integration Lab in Webster, which will feature two components — the main lab and a software verification facility. The integration lab will aid creation of Starlab’s commercial space station.

“To ensure the success of our future space missions, we are starting with state-of-the-art testing facilities that will include the closest approximation to the flight environment as possible and allow us to verify requirements and validate the design of the Starlab space station,” Starlab CEO Tim Kopra said in a news release.

Starlab’s grant comes on top of a $217.5 million award from NASA to help eventually transition activity from the soon-to-be-retired International Space Station to new commercial destinations.

Intuitive Machines is a space exploration, infrastructure and services company. Among its projects are a lunar lander designed to land on the moon and a lunar rover designed for astronauts to travel on the moon’s surface.

The grants come from the Space Commission’s Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund, which recently awarded $47.7 million to Texas companies.

Other recipients were:

  • Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace, which received $8.2 million
  • Brownsville-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which received $7.5 million
  • Van Horn-based Blue Origin, which received $7 million

Gwen Griffin, chair of the commission, says the grants “will support Texas companies as we grow commercial, military, and civil aerospace activity across the state.”

State lawmakers established the commission in 2023, along with the Texas Aerospace Research & Space Economy Consortium, to bolster the state’s space industry.

NASA got a brief taste of the moon's gravity during this experiment. Photo courtesy of NASA

Blue Origin mimics the moon's gravity for NASA experiments during spaceflight

To The Moon

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company gave NASA a brief taste of the moon’s gravity Tuesday, February 4, without straying too far from home.

Blue Origin launched the 29 lunar technology experiments to the edge of space from West Texas. Plans called for creating a few minutes of artificial lunar gravity by repeatedly spinning the capsule.

It was Blue Origin’s first attempt at mimicking lunar gravity, which is one-sixth that of Earth.

NASA said it wants to test equipment on short spaceflights to weed out any problems before sending them to the moon. The experiments — mainly sponsored by NASA — included ways to keep lunar dust off future moonwalkers’ spacesuits and tools.

Mimicking the moon's gravity on spaceflights can accelerate research at much lower costs and future trips can “closely mirror Mars and other solar system gravity environments,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp posted on X ahead of the flight.

The New Shepard rocket landed as planned following the late morning liftoff. The capsule with the experiments parachuted back to the desert to close out the 10-minute flight.

New Shepard alternates between flying passengers and experiments on short space hops. Blue Origin's much bigger orbital rocket, New Glenn, made its debut launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, last month.

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Houston-based health tech organization had experiments on Blue Origin's last mission. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin

Houston space health nonprofit launches first experiments onboard Blue Origin mission

all aboard

Houston's Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, conducted cutting-edge research onboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket that launched Friday, November 22.

The NS-28 mission sent private astronauts on an 11-minute suborbital journey past the recognized boundary of space known as the Kármán line, according to Blue Origin's website. While on board, astronauts wore a medical-grade BioButton device, known as a BioIntelliSense, that monitored vital signs and biometric readings.

The findings will add to TRISH's Enhancing eXploration Platforms and ANalog Definition, or EXPAND, program and were the first data sets captured from a suborbital flight.

“This initiative enables TRISH to further our research in space medicine by collecting valuable human health data,” Jimmy Wu, TRISH deputy director and chief engineer and assistant professor at Baylor, said in a statement. “New data from suborbital flights builds our understanding of how the human body responds to spaceflight. This holistic view is key in keeping humans healthy and safe in space.”

The experiments were also TRISH's first on a Blue Origin mission.

TRISH, which is part of BCM’s Center for Space Medicine with partners Caltech and MIT, has launched experiments on numerous space missions to date, with each contributing to its EXPAND platform, which compiles research on human health while in space.

In January, TRISH launched six experiments onboard Houston-based Axiom Space's third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, known as Ax-3. Prior to that, it also sent experiments on board the Ax-2 in May 2023. The research considered topics ranging from changes in astronauts memory before and after space travel to sleep and motor skills.

TRISH also launched experiments onboard SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission this fall and on the Inspiration4 all-civilian mission to orbit in 2021.

TRISH published its findings from the Inspiration4 mission in the journal Nature this summer. The study showed that "short-duration missions do not pose a significant health risk" to humans onboard. Read more about the team's findings here.

Stratolaunch successfully completed its hypersonic test flight earlier this year. Image courtesy of Draper

Space nonprofit with Houston office builds on NASA legacy to develop new hypersonic tech

high speed

With a recent air-launched test vehicle flight that came close to hypersonic speed, research company Draper has accelerated the potential for its flight technology.

Draper, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit, provided the crucial guidance, navigation, and control flight software for the flight. That guidance system was built on the same Draper technology that NASA has used in its Apollo mission, the international space station and space shuttle programs.

“In a broad sense, Draper has been working hypersonic since Apollo,” Rick Loffi, space systems program manager and lead executive for Draper’s Houston campus, tells InnovationMap.

The navigation software controlled the first powered test flight of an air-launched vehicle that approached the hypersonic threshold of Mach 5, or 3,800 miles per hour, or five times the speed of sound.

Stratolaunch successfully completed the flight of its TA-1 Talon test vehicle in the Mojave Desert in March. The California-based company designs and launches aerospace vehicles and technologies, providing access to a reusable hypersonic testing platform, according to its website. The historic test flight landed in the Pacific Ocean, and achieved successful ignition, acceleration and sustained altitude climb.

“The Draper software is really what’s stabilizing the vehicle during flight…and controlling it as it gets up into altitude and speed,” Brandon Jalbert, space systems program manager for Draper and team lead for Stratolaunch, says “so it’s not doing loop-de-loops, or getting unstable…blowing up in the atmosphere.”

Draper uses model-based design and algorithms in its software, and for the boost phase of the Talon test, Draper developed a novel algorithm, which built upon its previous work for NASA, Jalbert says.

Aerospace manufacturing companies like Boom and Hermeus stand poised to pick up where the Concorde left off, and are racing to implement and execute on accessible hypersonic and supersonic commercial technology.

The Concorde aircraft made supersonic, four-hour transoceanic flights a reality, but only for the very wealthy, and shut down in 2003.

Draper is not involved in any of those ventures to bring accessible supersonic flight back to the skies. Its primary focus with hypersonic will remain with deterrence and testing platforms, Jalbert says.

But the company’s technology “has applications everywhere from military to commercial activity,“ he says.

“Our focus is to solve complex challenges of national importance,” he says, “whether that’s…helping our commercial partners, or working on civil or military applications. That’s where we see ourselves being of value to the industry.”

With the harsh conditions involved in hypersonic flight, advancing the technology has its challenges.

“You’ve got to have proper hardware and electronics and sensors that can operate within those conditions,” Jalbert says.

Draper originated in 1932 when engineer Charles Stark Draper founded what eventually became the Instrumentation Lab at MIT.

His work on inertial navigation theory paved the way for the use of the autopilot in today’s commercial jets. The lab was divested by MIT in the 1970s, and became a nonprofit. Draper has long been a government contractor and has worked on many military projects, dating to WWII.

Draper in 2023 secured the $2.2 billion renewal of a long-standing contract with the U.S. Navy to provide the guidance system for the submarine-launched Trident II D-5 missile.

The U.S. government has shown a growing interest in the development of hypersonic weapons systems, as Russia and China have developed advanced capabilities.

The Pentagon’s budget request for hypersonic research for fiscal year 2025 was $6.9 billion, up from $4.7 billion for 2023, according to a recent U.S. Naval Institute report.

“There’s a big shift, in deterrence, as well as offensive, on hypersonic,” Jalbert says.

However, the Defense Department has not yet acquired hypersonic weapons, according to the report, but is developing prototypes and testing.

Draper has a long, celebrated history with NASA, and its Houston office is housed at Johnson Space Center. Draper's presence in Houston dates back to the 1960s, Loffi says.

From the Apollo missions to the space station and now the Artemis program, which aims to land the first person of color and the first woman on the moon by 2026 on its Orion spacecraft, Draper has partnered with NASA every step of the way, providing its navigation system for space flight.

“Right now, our biggest customer within NASA is the Orion program,” Loffi says, with approximately 15 of the 20-person Houston office working on the project, in collaboration with the company’s Cambridge colleagues.

Draper's Houston office is working on NASA's Orion program. Photo via NASA

The company is also working with NASA on lunar landing technology and sub-orbital experiments, as well as the propulsion element and Gateway space station for Artemis.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s aerospace manufacturing company Blue Origin is also partnering with Draper to develop the Artemis human landing system.

Neither Loffi nor Jalbert aspired to go into outer space themselves, but rather to provide solutions to make that possible. Human spaceflight has been a lifelong passion for Loffi.

While he had lots of job opportunities after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering, Loffi chose NASA.

“I wasn’t that person who grew up dreaming of becoming an astronaut,” Loffi says. “I was old enough to see the Apollo 11 moon landing, and it did inspire me.”

His work at NASA began after the space shuttle Challenger explosion, in 1986. He was part of the agency’s effort to return to space flight, and worked on space station development, before joining Draper in 2011.

Jalbert, a graduate of Northeastern University, says his early work at Draper “lit the fires for my interest in space.”

Local kids can pursue STEM and space dreams thanks to the generous gift. Photo courtesy of Space Center Houston

Jeff Bezos' foundation gifts Space Center Houston with $1 million grant

space funds

Billionaires such as Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos may be blasting off into the beyond, but for now, space travel is still primarily relegated to the expert astronauts who train here in Houston.

Now, a new $1 million grant to our beloved hub of all things cosmic may just inspire local kids to rocket towards a career in space exploration or STEM careers. Space Center Houston has just received the generous, two-comma grant from Blue Origin, Bezos' company.

Blue Origin auctioned off seats on first crew New Shepard suborbital flight, which yielded an impressive $28 million. Bezos, his brother Mark, and Wally Funk, one of the Mercury 13 women will join the auction winner on the upcoming trip.

With the $28 million proceeds, Blue Origin then awarded $1 million to 19 organizations (each) through its foundation, Club for the Future.

"This donation is enabling Club for the Future to rapidly expand its reach by partnering with 19 organizations to develop and inspire the next generation of space professionals," said Bob Smith, Blue Origin CEO, in a statement. "Our generation will build the road to space and these efforts will ensure the next generation is ready to go even further."

The $1 million Space Center Houston received will go towards the center's Title 1 school field trip program, enabling students with access to the center's extensive space artifact collection, per a press release. Space Center Houston's Girls STEM Pathway initiative, which promotes learning experiences for girls in STEM careers, will also receive funds. The comprehensive, six-phase initiative includes an introductory elementary school experience, a middle school project-based STEM experience, a summer bridge program with mentoring support, and a program for high school girls to engage in scientific research, the center notes.

"Blue Origin's grant will further enable Space Center Houston to provide immersive science learning experiences for underserved Houston area youth," said the center's president and CEO, William T. Harris, in a release. "We are very thankful to Blue Origin for helping us inspire and prepare students for future STEM careers. With Blue Origin's support, we can empower students with hands-on STEM learning opportunities through the wonders of space exploration."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Texas cybersecurity co. expands unique train-to-hire model to Houston

job search

It’s increasingly more difficult to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of proprietary data and information in the ever-changing, ever-evolving digital world.

Cyberattacks, including malware, phishing, and ransomware, are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated, posing a consistent threat to a company’s sustainability and bottom line.

To combat that trend, Nukudo, a San Antonio-based cybersecurity workforce development company, is expanding its initiative to bridge the global cybersecurity talent gap through immersive training and job placement to Houston.

“We saw that there was a need in the market because there's a shortage of skilled manpower within the cybersecurity industry and other digital domains,” says Dean Gefen, CEO of NukuDo. “So, our initial goal was to take a large pool of people and then make them to be fully operational in cybersecurity in the shortest amount of time.”

The company refers to the plan as the “training-to-employment model,” which focuses on providing structured training to select individuals who then acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to secure and maintain fruitful careers.

The company identifies potential associates through its proprietary aptitude test, which recognizes individuals who possess the innate technical acumen and potential for success in various cybersecurity roles, regardless of their level of education.

“We take in people from all walks of life, meaning the program is purely based on the associate’s potential,” Gefen says. “We have people who were previously aircraft engineers, teachers, graphic designers, lawyers, insurance agents and so forth.”

Once selected, associates are trained by cybersecurity experts while gaining hands-on experience through scenario-based learning, enabling them to be deployed immediately as fully operational cybersecurity professionals.

The program training lasts just six months—all paid—followed by three years of guaranteed employment with NukuDo.

While in training, associates are paid $ 4,000 per month; then, they’re compensated by nearly double that amount over the next three years, ultimately pushing their salaries to well into the six figures after completing the entire commitment.

In addition to fostering a diverse talent pipeline in the cybersecurity field, NukuDo is creating a comprehensive solution to address the growing shortage of technical talent in the global workforce.

And arming people with new marketable skills has a litany of benefits, both professional and personal, Gefen says.

“Sometimes, we have associates who go on to make five times their previous salary,” says Gefen. “Add to that fact that we had someone that had a very difficult life beforehand and we were able to put him on a different path. That really hits home for us that we are making a difference.

Nulkudo currently has partnerships with companies such as Accenture Singapore and Singapore Airlines. Gefen says he and his team plans to have a new class of associates begin training every month by next year and take the model to the Texas Triangle (Houston, Austin and Dallas)—then possibly nationwide.

“The great thing about our program is that we train people above the level of possible threat of replacement by artificial intelligence,” Gefen says. “But what we are also doing, and this is due to requirements that we have received from clients that are already hiring our cyber professionals, is that we are now starting to deliver AI engineers and data scientists in other domains.”

“That means that we have added more programs to our cybersecurity program. So, we're also training people in data science and machine learning,” he continues.

All interested candidates for the program should be aware that a college degree is not required. NukuDo is genuinely interested in talented individuals, regardless of their background.

“The minimum that we are asking for is high school graduates,” Gefen says. “They don't need to have a college degree; they just need to have aptitude. And, of course, they need to be hungry to make this change.”

2 Houston universities declared among world’s best in 2026 rankings

Declaring the Best

Two Houston universities are in a class of their own, earning top spots on a new global ranking of the world's best universities.

Rice University and University of Houston are among the top 1,200 schools included in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Ten more schools across Texas make the list.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), a London-based provider of higher education data and analytics, compiles the prestigious list each year; the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 universities from around the world. Factors used to rank the schools include academic reputation; employer reputation; faculty-student ratio; faculty research; and international research, students, and faculty.

In Texas, University of Texas at Austin lands at No. 1 in the state, No. 20 in the U.S., and No. 68 globally.

Houston's Rice University is close behind as Texas' No. 2 school. It ranks 29th in the U.S. and No. 119 in the world. Unlike UT, which fell two spots globally this year (from No. 66 to 68), Rice climbed up the charts, moving from 141st last year to No. 119.

University of Houston impresses as Texas' 4th highest-ranked school. It lands at No. 80 in the U.S. and No. 556 globally, also climbing about 100 spots up the chart.

Rice and UH are on a roll in regional, national, and international rankings this year.

Rice earned top-15 national rankings by both Niche.com and Forbes last fall. Rice claimed No. 1 and UH ranked No. 8 in Texas in U.S. News & World Report's 2025 rankings. Rice also topped WalletHub's 2025 list of the best colleges and universities in Texas for 2025.

More recently, in April, both UH and Rice made U.S. News' 2025 list of top grad schools.

In all, 192 U.S. universities made the 2026 QS World University Rankings — the most of any country. Topping the global list is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“The results show that while U.S. higher education remains the global leader, its dominance is increasingly challenged by fast-rising emerging systems,” says the QS World University Rankings report. “A decade ago, 32 American universities [were] featured in the world’s top 100; today, that number has dropped to 26, and only 11 of these institutions have improved their position this year."

The 12 Texas universities that appear in the QS World University Rankings 2026 list are:

  • University of Texas at Austin, No. 20 in the U.S. and No. 68 in the world (down from No. 66 last year).
  • Rice University, No. 29 in the U.S. and No. 119 in the world (up from No. 141 last year).
  • Texas A&M University, No. 32 in the U.S. and No. 144 in the world (up from No. 154 last year).
  • University of Houston, No. 80 in the U.S. and No. 556 in the world (up from 651-660 last year).
  • University of Texas at Dallas, No. 85 in the U.S. and No. 597 in the world (down from 596 last year).
  • Texas Tech University, No. 104 in the U.S. and No. 731-740 in the world (unchanged from last year).
  • University of North Texas, No. 123 in the U.S. and No. 901-950 in the world (up from 1,001-1,200 last year)
  • Baylor University, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at No. 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
  • Southern Methodist University, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
  • University of Texas Arlington, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
  • University of Texas at San Antonio, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
  • University of Texas at El Paso, No. 172 in the U.S. and at 1,201-1,400 in the world (down from 1,001-1,200 last year).
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston students develop new device to prepare astronauts for outer space

space race

Rice University students from the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing designed a space exercise harness that is comfortable, responsive, and adaptable and has the potential to assist with complex and demanding spacewalks.

A group of students—Emily Yao, Nikhil Ashri, Jose Noriega, Ben Bridges and graduate student Jack Kalicak—mentored by assistant professor of mechanical engineering Vanessa Sanchez, modernized harnesses that astronauts use to perform rigorous exercises. The harnesses are particularly important in preparing astronauts for a reduced-gravity space environment, where human muscles and bones atrophy faster than they do on Earth. However, traditional versions of the harnesses had many limitations that included chafing and bruising.

The new harnesses include sensors for astronauts to customize their workouts by using real-time data and feedback. An additional two sensors measure astronauts’ comfort and exercise performance based on temperature and humidity changes during exercise and load distribution at common pressure points.

“Our student-led team addressed this issue by adding pneumatic padding that offers a customized fit, distributes pressure over a large surface area to reduce discomfort or injuries and also seamlessly adapts to load shifts — all of which together improved astronauts’ performance,” Sanchez said in a news release. “It was very fulfilling to watch these young engineers work together to find innovative and tangible solutions to real-world problems … This innovative adjustable exercise harness transforms how astronauts exercise in space and will significantly improve their health and safety during spaceflights.”

The project was developed in response to a challenge posted by the HumanWorks Lab and Life Science Labs at NASA and NASA Johnson Space Center for the 2025 Technology Collaboration Center’s (TCC) Wearables Workshop and University Challenge, where teams worked to solve problems for industry leaders.

Rice’s adaptive harness won the Best Challenge Response Award. It was funded by the National Science Foundation and Rice’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry.

“This challenge gave us the freedom to innovate and explore possibilities beyond the current harness technology,” Yao added in the release. “I’m especially proud of how our team worked together to build a working prototype that not only has real-world impact but also provides a foundation that NASA and space companies can build and iterate upon.”