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Missouri native gives update from space

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A crew of astronauts, including southern Missouri native Mike Hopkins, is getting settled in aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on November 15 and are spending the next six months in space.

Missouri astronaut Mike Hopkins and crew

The crew is part of the first manned operational space flight of a U.S. commercial shuttle. The space mission marks the second one for Hopkins.

During an update with NASA, Hopkins, the commander, talks about the rocket’s name – “Resilience.”

“It’s been a tough year and the fact that SpaceX and NASA were able to get our spacecraft ready to go – the rocket ready to go – throughout this year, throughout the pandemic and all of that, we were inspired by everybody’s efforts to do that. So that’s why we named it Resilience and we hope that it puts a smile to peoples’ face – it brings hope to them,” says Hopkins.

He says a longstanding astronaut tradition is to take along a sidekick to space and show viewers at home. Their choice seems appropriate given their location.

“We had just started watching the (Star Wars) series and it’s hard not to like baby Yoda,” says Hopkins. “I think the ride into space was probably a little rougher than baby Yoda was used to.”

The space station spans the area of an American football field and weighs more than 861,000 lbs. The complex has more livable room than a five-bedroom home, with two bathrooms, a gym and a 360-degree bay window.

Hopkins grew up in southern Missouri’s Richland near Fort Leonard Wood. He also has family in the Lake of the Ozarks area in central Missouri.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Pfizer V.P. in Missouri optimistic about new vaccine, says “science is winning”

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Pfizer labs in Chesterfield, Missouri are ready to mass-produce a new COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the FDA approves its success rate and safety data.  Pfizer and BioNtech have teamed up to develop a successful mRNA-based vaccine and have reached a 90 percent success rate in its studies so far.

At a press conference with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson Thursday, Vice President of Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Science Christine Smith, the site manager for the Chesterfield facility said there is more work to do. Their industry-leading study continues until they get to 164 confirmed cases of the vaccine’s success. The company must provide safety data for the FDA 60 days after giving a second injection to test subjects.

Pfizer V.P. Christine Smith updates media Nov. 12, 2020

Smith said the safety step is critical for the candidate vaccine.

“We’ve not seen any serious safety concerns, I cannot underscore the importance of knowing more about the safety profile of our candidate. We’ll know more about these results in the coming weeks before we submit the file for emergency use authorization. And we are preparing the necessary manufacturing data to submit to the FDA to demonstrate the safety and quality of the vaccine product produced,” she said.

With approval, she says they can start distributing the vaccine by the end of the year, “because we — Pfizer and BioNtech — have already started to make it.”

Missourians would get the vaccine from the Chesterfield facility, which would reduce travel and handling of shipments that must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Read related story.

Smith thanked the 43-thousand participants who enrolled across the world, including “many Missourians.”

“We are one step closer, science is winning,” she said.

 

 

Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

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The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation is deploying $6 million in federal funding to create 5,300 new tech industry apprenticeships. During a virtual event Monday, President Dan Mehan calls the investment a game changer.

Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

“There is an apprenticeship revolution going on in Missouri,” he says. “Over the last two years, our state ranks second in the number of completed apprenticeships – second only behind California.”

More than 10,000 Missourians have gone through an apprenticeship program that gives them real-world and traditional learning through a paid work experience. The effort is meant to give participants a feel for whether they would like to make a living in the profession.

According to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about 94% of apprentices are retained by their employers after they complete their apprenticeships and the average annual salary is not too shabby – about $70,000. The Chamber says the pay leads to a $300,000 lifetime earning advantage over non-apprentices.

Mehan says the state is “poised for strong growth” in apprenticeships thanks to a number of developments this year.

Mehan says House Bill 2046, passed this year by the Missouri Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, will boost the state’s apprenticeship efforts. The plan, sponsored by Rep. Derek Grier, R-Chesterfield, gives students industry credentials after they finish their program.

“This progress could not have come at a better time,” says Mehan. “We all know our state faces many challenges as we continue to confront COVID-19 and seek to grow our economy out of it. One of our biggest challenges will be training workers who find themselves unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic. Apprenticeships will be a very important tool as we work to help get these workers back on the job and likewise ensure that Missouri employers have the talent they need to grow and power our economy.”

Another development Mehan points to is Missouri Apprentice Connect – the first in the nation apprenticeship matching program. The free service can be found by going to MoApprenticeConnect.com

Dr. Mardy Leathers, director of the Missouri Office of Workforce Development, says there is a wide variety of businesses contributing to the state’s apprenticeship success.

“In Missouri, it would be easy if I could rattle off the names of a couple employers. But the reality is, there are 493 employers who have apprenticeship programs in the state. So, we have a lot of employers who engage,” says Leathers. “It’s actually a great thing that I can’t rattle those names off because we have so many.”

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, helped to secure the federal grant. Blunt chairs a subcommittee that funds U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and others.

“Nobody has taken better advantage of this than Missouri has,” says Blunt. “We’ve got a new Office of Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning that has been set up in the Department of Higher Education. I think what these apprenticeship programs do and what our state, what you’ve done and what Governor Parson has done and others have done, is realize we have to look at the workplace a little differently.”

Cerner Corporation – a global healthcare technology company in Kansas City – was the lead partner in bringing the federal grant to Missouri.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

All aboard! Missouri astronaut gears up for space

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The countdown is approaching for NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins of southern Missouri’s Richland. In T minus five days, Hopkins and three others are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station.

Hopkins is leading the four-person crew on a mission that will make space their home for about the next six months. They arrived Sunday to the Kennedy Space Center.

PHOTO DATE: 12-29-16
LOCATION: Bldg. 8, Room 183 – Photo Studio
SUBJECT: Official astronaut portrait of Mike Hopkins in an EMU suit.
PHOTOGRAPHER: BILL STAFFORD

“It’s really been an incredible effort by an incredible group of people. For the crew – we’re ready,” said Hopkins.

He will be joined by NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Victor Glover, as well as Soichi Noguchi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The crew is blasting off in the same vehicle that launched into space over the summer with St. Louis County native Bob Behnken on board.

The space mission will mark the second one for Hopkins. He has logged 166 days in space and conducted two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes.

“I’m excited to float again. There’s nothing like that,” he told Missourinet during an interview in September. “It’s an experience that is hard to describe and that’s actually one of my goals when I go up this time is to figure out how to describe – how to put it into words to people down on Earth.”

Hopkins has also served his country in the U.S. Air Force and is currently a colonel in the newly-launched U.S. Space Force – a space warfare branch of America’s military.

Saturday’s liftoff is scheduled for 6:49 p.m. CST at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Previous story:

(AUDIO) Missouri native prepares to blast off to space
https://www.missourinet.com/2020/09/30/audio-missouri-native-prepares-to-blast-off-to-space/

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Virgin Hyperloop still has its eye on Missouri to transport passengers in tubes

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Virgin Hyperloop says West Virginia has been chosen for its futuristic tube travel test track and certification center, but Missouri is not out of the picture. Company spokesman Ryan Kelly tells Missourinet West Virginia might not necessarily be where the first route is located.

A Hyperloop model visits the Mizzou campus (Photo courtesy of Virgin Hyperloop One)

“We still plan to continue work with some of the states that we’ve been talking to including Missouri, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and a couple more to really look at where the first projects could be once our technology is safety certified,” says Kelly. “If you think about how the interstate highway system came around when (President) Eisenhower decided to make that investment, even though it was based in Missouri, it was a national campaign. That’s where it started, but obviously not where it finished.”

St. Charles in eastern Missouri was the home of the first interstate highway project in the nation.

A Hyperloop is said to have the ability to lug passengers from Kansas City to St. Louis in about 30 minutes – a potential game changer for the way the state does business in the region. People could commute from one end of the state to the other, tying both economies together.

Kelly says the company’s top three criteria in its decision to award the projects to West Virginia had to do with land, political support and financial support. He says the company is not disclosing the incentives offered or any other financial information.

The Missouri Legislature passed and the governor signed into law this year a bill that keeps state road funds away from the project, keeps the project away from I-70’s right of way, and bans the use of eminent domain to build it. Did the new law derail plans of the test track and certification center coming to Missouri?

“I’ll counter that with Missouri was one of the first ones to actually legislate about Hyperloop in the United States as well,” says Kelly. “Speaker (Elijah) Haahr has been a huge proponent of what we were doing and have felt that support in Missouri. So, I wouldn’t point to that as a be all end all or something that we can point to that really tipped the scales, so to speak.”

Haahr, R-Springfield, formed a task force charged with creating a road map to commercialize a Hyperloop in Missouri. Lieutenant Gov. Mike Kehoe led the team.

“The vision that the state had for something like this is really commendable and exciting,” says Kelly. “We want to continue forward to talk to the state and continue to look at a path forward – for not only Missouri but for America as well.”

A study the panel compiled found that the technology could have up to $3.6 billion annually in economic impact and create up to 17,200 new jobs in Missouri. The group’s 176-page report also says the network could reduce I-70 vehicle crash injuries and fatalities up to 50%.

It estimates a full 250-mile Hyperloop track along Interstate-70 would cost about $7 to $10 billion and be mainly privately funded.

Earlier stories:

Missouri not chosen for Virgin Hyperloop test track https://www.missourinet.com/2020/10/08/missouri-not-chosen-for-virgin-hyperloop-test-track/

Missouri House Speaker, Majority Leader say Hyperloop should happen https://www.missourinet.com/2019/10/29/missouri-house-speaker-majority-leader-say-hyperloop-should-happen/

Task force: Hyperloop would fuel Missouri economy by billions, make 17k jobs https://www.missourinet.com/2019/10/28/task-force-hyperloop-would-fuel-economy-by-billions-make-17k-jobs/

Is flooding a problem for a potential Hyperloop in Missouri?  https://wp.me/p16gMv-vjP

Push for Hyperloop certification track in Missouri  https://wp.me/p16gMv-vjy

Could ‘Hyperloop’ tube travel thrive in Missouri? New group aims to find out, accelerate construction  https://wp.me/p16gMv-uQg

Missouri coalition launches study about speedy passenger tube rides  https://wp.me/p16gMv-sOP

Coalition hyped up about tubes taking you from KC to St. Louis in 31 minutes  https://wp.me/p16gMv-sfe

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Missouri S&T gets $300 million donation – a historic day for the school and state’s higher education system

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Today is a historic day for the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) and the state. St. Louis businessman Fred Kummer and his wife June have donated $300 million to a foundation supporting the university he graduated from in 1955 as a civil engineer. According to a press release from the school, the gift is the largest single donation in the history of Missouri higher education.

Fred and June Kummer (Photo by Terry Barner/Missouri S&T)

The university says it plans to use the gift to:

•Create a new school of innovation and entrepreneurship

•Develop new areas for research

•Provide numerous scholarships and fellowships for students

•Create new research faculty positions

•Launch a shuttle service between S&T and St. Louis to bring students from the metropolitan area to Rolla for camps, campus visits and other activities

•Bolster the Rolla region’s economy in southern Missouri

•Launch a new, independent, university-affiliated research and development entity modeled after ones like the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Missouri S&T says four new research centers – focused on infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and environmental and resource sustainability – will stand at the heart of this endeavor.

“This gift is transformative for S&T, the Rolla region and our state,” said Dr. Mo Dehghani, Missouri S&T chancellor. “For nearly 150 years, Missouri S&T has been known as the state’s premier technological university. Now, thanks to June and Fred, S&T will have the opportunity to become one of the nation’s leading universities for innovation. At the same time, this gift will make our school a center for entrepreneurship, thereby energizing the economy of the Rolla area and the entire state of Missouri.

“With this gift, we expect to be able to dramatically increase the size of our student body, recruit outstanding new faculty, establish powerful new centers of research, and engage with the community in new and exciting ways,” Dehghani said.

Fred Kummer, 91, is the founder and chairman of St. Louis-based HBE Corp., the world’s leading design-build firm for health care. The university says the Kummers have been major donors to Missouri S&T for decades.

“I owe much of my success to the education I received at Rolla,” Fred Kummer said. “My Rolla experience taught me how to think, how to work hard and how to manage my own career. June and I believe in the mission of this great university, and that’s why we have chosen to invest in S&T’s future success. We believe that Missouri S&T’s best days are ahead.”

The Kummers’ gift will be channeled into a new not-for-profit foundation, The Kummer Institute Foundation. According to an analysis completed by the University of Missouri-Columbia, the economic impact of the foundation is expected to fuel $250 million in gross domestic product to the Missouri economy during its first five years of operation and more than $2 billion over 25 years. The study says the impact does not include the potential of spin-off corporations and subsequent job creation that the initial $300 million gift is expected to produce, or the research and development activities to be accomplished by the institute’s four research centers.

Founded in 1870, Missouri S&T is a STEM-focused research university of over 8,000 students and part of the four-campus University of Missouri System.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Missouri to receive 120,000 rapid COVID-19 tests this week

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The federal government plans to deliver more than 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests around the country. The nasal swab tests are not as uncomfortable as other versions and they can deliver results in about 15 minutes. During today’s virtual briefing at the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City, Gov. Mike Parson says Missouri will be getting a share of those tests.

Missouri to receive 120,000 rapid COVID-19 tests this week

“We expect to receive 120,000 of these tests in Missouri by the end of the week and nearly two million by the end of the year,” says Parson.

Getting the tests to schools and long-term care centers will be a top priority.

During a State Board of Education meeting this month, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokesperson Mallory McGowin said the agency is working with the statewide COVID response team to develop the plans and guidance for this new line of effort.

“Being able to test a symptomatic member of your school staff to know if he or she could come into work that morning or not, could be really valuable to address the workforce issue we’ve heard great concern about,” she said.

Missouri has had ongoing problems with keeping teachers around and the shortage is expected to be even greater during the pandemic.

The tests will arrive after a new White House Coronavirus Task Force report says new hospital admissions are increasing and case rates put Missouri in a vulnerable position going into the fall and winter. A report, dated September 27, says Missouri has the 8th highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the country, listing the state again in the red zone for cases based on population.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

(AUDIO) Missouri native prepares to blast off to space

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On a farm near southern Missouri’s Richland, Mike Hopkins grew up watching with fascination as astronauts rocketed into space. America’s space shuttle program inspired him to want to reach for the stars. Those were the days of the space shuttles Challenger and Discovery launching into orbit.

PHOTO DATE: 12-29-16
LOCATION: Bldg. 8, Room 183 – Photo Studio
SUBJECT: Official astronaut portrait of Mike Hopkins in an EMU suit.
PHOTOGRAPHER: BILL STAFFORD

Today, Hopkins is living out his childhood dreams. He is commander of a crew scheduled to take off into space on October 31 and head to the International Space Station.

“You got to see the launches on TV at school. Everybody would go to the auditorium and they’d have the TVs set up on the stage and you got to see that,” says Hopkins. “And you’re just looking at that going, ‘Wow, I’d love to do that.’ It just feels right. I think those of us that are blessed to have jobs like that where it feels like this is where you are supposed to be, I think we are all very fortunate. So hopefully our mission will be able to do the same thing. When they get to see the crew and our different backgrounds and where we came from, hopefully everybody out there will find one of us that they can connect with that can help inspire them.”

Hopkins, 51, will be aboard the second manned flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The crew is blasting off in the same vehicle that launched into space over the summer with St. Louis County native Bob Behnken on board.

Hopkins will be joined by NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Victor Glover, as well as Soichi Noguchi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Their mission is expected to last until April 2021. Hopkins says the plan is for the crew to return by plunging into the water – just like Behnken did in August.

The astronauts will live aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins describes the ISS as alive.

“You find that out when it’s after work hours and you’ve turned out the lights and people are in their crew quarters going to bed and you’re kind of alone in some of the main modules. You just hear and you can feel this vibration of the equipment that’s keeping you alive and it’s like a heartbeat,” he says. “You get that sense of just how special this vehicle is because it’s standing between you and the vacuum of space. You just really feel a connection to it.”

The space station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph.

Have you ever wondered how massive the station is? Let’s put it this way – the ISS spans the area of an American football field and weighs more than 861,000 lbs. The complex has more livable room than a five-bedroom home, with two bathrooms, a gym and a 360-degree bay window.

Its main construction was completed between 1998 and 2011 but continues to grow.

The ISS is bright enough that it can be seen from Earth at night without the use of a telescope by star gazers who know a thing or two. NASA has an interactive map to find out where to spot the station.

The space mission will mark the second one for Hopkins. He has logged 166 days in space and conducted two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes.

“I’m excited to float again. There’s nothing like that,” he says. “It’s an experience that is hard to describe and that’s actually one of my goals when I go up this time is to figure out how to describe – how to put it into words to people down on Earth.”

Hopkins has also served his country in the U.S. Air Force. He is currently a colonel in the newly-launched U.S. Space Force – a space warfare branch of America’s military.

His mother and stepfather, Barbara and Dennis Duffy, reside in central Missouri’s Camdenton. His father, Ogle Hopkins, is deceased, and his stepmother, Paula Hertwig Hopkins, lives on the farm outside Richland near Ft. Leonard Wood.

Listen to the interview with NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins:

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

U.S. Ag Secretary attends grand opening of new St. Louis food tech company’s headquarters

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Benson Hill grand opening

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Missouri Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn gave remarks during the grand opening of food tech company Benson Hill’s headquarters in St. Louis Monday.

Perdue said the work of Benson Hill will go a long way in helping feed the estimated 9 billion people on the planet by 2050.

“The kind of things we know about different genes and genomes and germplasm today based on what companies like Benson Hill do, and what they will know more in the future about affecting the palatability, the flavor and nutritional qualities will go a long way,” he said.

Chinn said the 39 North Innovation District in St. Louis is the perfect location for Benson Hill.

Benson Hill

“The culture of ag innovation and ag business in Missouri is thriving and it’s strong. St. Louis has more plant scientists than any other place in the world, so this is a great fit for Benson Hill,” said Chinn.

The 160,000 square foot building will be the home Benson Hill’s team of experts in plant biology, agronomy, data analytics, machine learning and food science all focused on the innovation of better food and ingredient options from plant to plate.

By Rhiannon Branch of Brownfield Ag News

Missouri study finds job candidates are rated lower in virtual interviews

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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in the number of employers doing job interviews through a video platform. Three researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in southern Missouri’s Rolla have published a study showing job candidates are rated lower in virtual interviews than during in-person interviews.

Photo Tom Wagner/Missouri S&T, Portrait of Dr. Denise Baker, Dr. Devin Burns (in eye tracking glasses), Dr. Clair Ann Reynolds Kueny (in eye tracking glasses), research illustration of their work dehumanizing effects of video communications, group portrait of team. Image is copyrighted and all moral rights asserted by Missouri S&T Marketing and Communications Dept., Rolla, Missouri, USA

Dr. Clair Kueny, Dr. Denise Baker and Dr. Devin Burns, assistant professors of psychological sciences, have been working on the project for the past three years. The study includes 21 job interviews with 84 participants. Half of the participants were in the same room as the candidate and the other half were watching through video.

Burns says the participants were asked about the applicant’s level of competence, intelligence, likability and how likely they were to hire the person.

“Across the board on almost every single question, we see like two to three point differences on a 10 point scale where the people in the room with him rated him a 7 or an 8 and the people who watched over video rated him a 5 or a 4,” says Burns.

Differences were also found in the adjectives the participants used to describe the applicant. Face-to-face participants chose words like “experienced” and “intelligent”, while video participants used “unprepared” and “unenthusiastic.” Those who watched the interview through video also rated the candidate less capable of feeling emotions, planning and other dimensions to measure the differences between people and computers.

“In some ways, the people who watched it through video were really seeing this person as somehow less human,” says Burns.

Kueny says some participants who watched the interview online reported paying less attention.

“Which then lower attention is also related to lower impressions of the candidates,” she says. “It’s self-reported attention and it wasn’t like an objective way of really knowing who was paying what attention and what they were paying attention to but that’s one possible linking mechanism that we identified,” she says.

Kueny says being in front of someone adds pressure.

“If someone was also in the room with that candidate, they can’t sit there with their phone open on something else or have their laptop scrolling through. They have a pressure of that candidate being able to see them and pay attention to them too,” says Kueny.

Was the level of inattention enough to account for the gap in the ratings?

“It only brought us part of the way there,” says Burns. “I think it accounted for about 1/3 of the difference, but there was still 2/3 of the difference that are other factors about maybe about just getting to meet a person humanizes them or something like that.”

Kueny suggests standardizing the medium in which job interviews are done.

“This suggests that really it’s beyond just having a face-to-face and really suggests that we need to standardize so all interviews need to be done via Zoom or all interviews need to be done via in-person and you really can’t necessarily cut across the two,” says Kueny.

Burns says video interviews have advantages, including the pool of candidates from outside your region.

The study also found a potential similarity could happen in virtual education with the way students view their teachers remotely as opposed to in-person.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet