Critical Contributions to Critical Challenges | April 14, 2026

Integration and testing — the activities involved in assembling the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander and testing it for the rigors of launch and extreme conditions of space — is officially underway in Johns Hopkins APL clean rooms and control rooms.

The Lab is developing a comprehensive suite of capabilities to ensure that additively manufactured parts can perform predictably in mission-critical applications — no matter where, when, or on what machines they’re manufactured.

APL has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026, ranking 13 in the Security category for developing cybersecurity tools to protect industrial control systems that power essential services such as electricity, water, and transportation.

Vernon Parks will lead a diverse portfolio of programs and initiatives focused on ensuring maritime domain situational awareness; delivering sea-based effects to deter aggressors; enhancing force survivability; and enabling effective, affordable rapid prototyping and modernization to advance Navy missions.

A full-scale model of Parker Solar Probe, the history-making APL-built spacecraft that has flown closer to the Sun than any other human-made object, is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Andrew Newman, an engineer at the Lab, has earned a place among the Military Sensing Symposia fellows for his significant contributions to military sensing and national defense.

Paul Wienhold, a materials and process engineer, has received the 2025 Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Global Fellow Award for sustained leadership in composite materials engineering. 

The 2026 Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Spring Meeting will take place on April 28 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC, and on April 29 and 30 at APL’s Kossiakoff Center in Laurel, Maryland.

With the theme “Accelerate the Pace: Touch Down, Power Up, Explore!,” the LSIC Spring Meeting will echo the nation’s imperative for an immediate and lasting presence on the Moon, underscoring the urgency for lunar infrastructure technology efforts and inviting collaboration between NASA, government, industry, and academia on how we can advance progress together.

 © 2026 The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC. All rights reserved.
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