Louisiana Space Grant Consortium Lead Institution: Louisiana State University Director: T

FY 2019 Year 5 Extension Annual Performance Document

Louisiana Space Grant Consortium Lead Institution: Louisiana State University Director: T. Gregory Guzik Number: 225-578-8597 Consortium URL: http://laspace.lsu.edu/ Grant Number: NNX15AH82HD

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program consists of 52 state-based, university-led Space Grant Consortia in each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Annually, each consortium receives funds to develop and implement student fellowships and scholarships programs; interdisciplinary space- related research infrastructure, education, and public service programs; and cooperative initiatives with industry, research laboratories, and state, local, and other governments. Space Grant operates at the intersection of NASA’s interest as implemented by alignment with the Mission Directorates and the state’s interests. Although it is primarily a higher education program, Space Grant programs encompass the entire length of the education pipeline, including elementary/secondary and informal education. The Louisiana Space Grant Consortium is a Designated Consortium funded at a level of $760,000 for fiscal year 2019.

B. PROGRAM GOALS 1. Foster aerospace related, interdisciplinary, science, technology, and engineering research and education at Louisiana colleges and universities. Objectives: Maintain the LURA, HIS, GSRA, and REA programs which support real NASA-relevant research projects for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty researchers at colleges and universities in Louisiana. Support 1-3 NASA summer interns annually. Encourage LaSPACE funded researchers to apply for additional federal support by distributing funding opportunities and offering letters of support as relevant. Maintain participation in the statewide ballooning program, LaACES, as well as continuing to manage the HASP program at least through 2019 and to partner with the NASA Balloon Program Office to develop an extended HASP program for subsequent years. 2. Encourage aerospace related industries in Louisiana for economic development and diversification. Objectives: Develop a summer intern program with Louisiana aerospace related STEM industries and support summer interns at these facilities. 3. Promote and contribute to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics precollege education excellence. Objectives: Financially support 2-5 middle and/or high school teachers to attend summer workshops/trainings for STEM curriculum development relevant to NASA, such as the Texas Liftoff workshop and Project Lead the Way certifications. Financially support 10-20 middle school teacher participants in the annual Sci-Port Scibotics teacher-training program. Provide staff and material support at affiliate university campuses for at least two projects/events targeting middle school/high school students over the next three years. 4. Engage and educate the general public in NASA’s space exploration projects, benefits and opportunities as well as Louisiana’s role in the NASA program. Objectives: Support at least three Mobile Astronomy Resource System (MARS) events every year at public or school venues around the state. Encourage science center and university collaborations resulting in a yearly proposal to NASA informal education solicitations as available, or similar funding opportunities. Increase partnership activities with science and informal learning centers within Louisiana, resulting in one additional partnership per year. 5. Maintain a cooperative, effective, and inclusive consortium of Louisiana institutions to promote aerospace related research, education, and economic development. Objectives: Improve affiliate participation in consortium meetings, program solicitations, and survey responses by 4% each year over the next 3 years. Improve participation of minorities, females, and other diverse groups by 5% per year over the next period. Enhance regular communication with affiliates by establishing a web accessible database of LaSPACE announcements within the first year and investigate new communication technologies. Continue to hold at least one state-wide Consortium Council meeting each year. In addition to maintaining the goals listed above from our base proposal, our 4th year extension proposal committed to objectives 6-8 and objective 9 is from an augmentation to our base award: 6. Developing new hands-on flight projects in the area of sounding rockets, 7. Expanding opportunities for technical training at community colleges, and 8. Improving diversity through opportunities for students at our HBCU affiliates. 9. Finally, in December of 2018 we received an augmentation to our base award for our Assistant Director to serve as a “Space Grant Communications Lead” in order to assist NASA HQ OSTEM with Space Grant related communications initiatives.

C. PROGRAM/PROJECT BENEFITS TO PROGRAM AREAS The driving goal of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship program is to ensure students and faculty across the country, at all institutions of higher education, are exposed to the research priorities of and technical capabilities required by NASA. The hope is to attract and retain talent in all jurisdictions through Space Grant Funding and to build that infrastructure through other NASA programs. Facilitating the training and network development of participants in our programs is a major priority and successful facilitation requires refinement to our programs and protocols. As participation in our standard balloon flight program grew consistent, we decided to establish more hands-on opportunities, such as organized participation in the annual RockOn! workshop run by Colorado Space Grant and hosted at NASA Wallops. Additionally, we developed another funding vehicle so that experienced participant teams could compete for financial support to fund more advanced flight projects. These tiered programs enabled two of our smaller campuses (Delgado Community College in New Orleans last year & McNeese State University in Lake Charles this year) to obtain financial support to fly their accepted projects as part of the RockSat-C program. Also, in line with the priorities of both NASA and the state of Louisiana is to support transdisciplinary work that reaches a broad audience and helps to promote public science literacy. One of our recent Graduate Student Research Assistance (GSRA) awards at LaTech funded a multipronged project that coupled scientific research into the regulatory mechanisms of stem cells with the creation of educational materials related to said research. Under the LaTech VISTA (Visual Integration of Science Through Art) program faculty from art, biology, and biomedical engineering work together to offer student a unique opportunity to communicate science through art. A major new component of the VISTA program is the Journey series, a collection of books that tell the story of a person, program, or research enterprise at LaTech. Our GSRA award to Dr. Jamie Newman to support the work of Master of Science candidate Rebecca Hodnett was used in part to support the development of the second book in the Journey series. Written by Hodnett and Newman and illustrated by Studio Art and Graphic Design major Maddie Dearman, The Journey of a Stem Cell is an interactive children’s book and educational resource designed to bring the excitement, challenge, and wonder of scientific research to a young audience. The book introduces readers to the importance of stem cells, scientific research, and regenerative medicine, and showcases opportunities available in STEM, scientific communication, and related fields. Students can engage with interactive STEMQuests throughout the book for a unique learning experience that the authors hope inspires their own scientific journey. The book is targeted toward middle school students and can be purchased singly or in bulk for a class. Copies can be acquired here: https://bullmarket.latechalumni.org/project/18243.

D. PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS a) NASA Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships: LaSPACE supports the NIFS program area via four sub-programs laid out in our 2015-2018 proposal and recommitted to in our 4th (2018-2019) and 5th (2019-2020) Year Extensions. The particular programs involved here include NASA Internships, LaSPACE Undergraduate Research Assistantships (LURA), the new HBCU Institutional Scholars (HIS) program, and the Graduate Student Research Assistance (GSRA). For graduate students we have the Graduate Student Research Assistance (GSRA) program, which provides $8K (with a required 1:1 match) to a graduate student for supplemental financial support and funding for supplies and travel in pursuit of NASA-aligned research in fulfillment of a Master’s or PhD degree. We planned to support at least 5 GSRA awards this year and were able to issue awards for 6 (3 at LaTech, 2 at LSU, and 1 at Tulane). LaSPACE supports 3 distinct NIFS programs for undergraduate student researchers: Summer Interns at NASA, LURAs, and the HIS program awards at our HBCUs. During the summer of 2019, we were able to support 5 undergraduate student interns from 3 campuses (LaTech, LSU, & ULL) placed at 4 NASA Centers (Stennis, Michoud, Ames, & Marshall). Our research-intensive LURA program provides $6k per student for a year-long research project with $5K minimum disbursed directly to the student, with the remaining funds allocated for supplies and professional development activities like presenting at a meeting or conference. A joint application is submitted by the student and the faculty mentor. Student applicants must coordinate their effort with a faculty mentor and be able to devote 10-20 hours per week to the project. Faculty mentors must 1) be affiliated with a LaSPACE campus, 2) be engaged in NASA Mission Directorate related research or education, and 3) serve as the student’s faculty mentor. We committed to funding at least 6 LURAs this year, but were able to actually fund 10 meritorious students on 2 campuses (LaTech & ULL). Our final undergraduate NIFS program is our newest, the LaSPACE HBCU Institutional Scholars (HIS) program. A HIS award provides funding to support a comprehensive undergraduate student program which offers a structured research or design opportunity for participating students, as well as professional development opportunities such as regular workshops and lectures on topics ranging from effective technical communications to tips on applying to grad school. Programs also support invited speakers from local industry and field trips to nearby NASA facilities, like Stennis and Michoud. These programs are awarded at $20-40K per institution with a requirement that all supported students meet the threshold for significant support (typically a combination of the 160 hrs / $3K direct support). We hoped to fund between 2 and 4 awards this year and were able to fund four projects at the following HBCU campuses: Dillard University in New Orleans, Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge (SUBR), Southern University in New Orleans (SUNO), and Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. All of these projects are currently active with expected end dates of May 31, 2020. Since students and faculty at all Louisiana Institutions have not been allowed back on campus since the middle of March, we think it’s unlikely all projects will close on schedule, though we have encouraged our PIs to provide any and all opportunities for students to conduct remote work. b) Higher Education Projects: LaSPACE supports five major higher education programs; three programs are long standing, while two were developed during the current 5-year cycle. Our three long-standing programs include our established scientific ballooning program for undergraduates in Louisiana, our more advanced (inter)national ballooning program, and funding support for senior design projects at Louisiana institutions. Our more recently developed higher education hands-on programs include formalized participation in the annual RockOn! Workshop run by the Colorado Space Grant and hosted at Wallops and the Support for Advanced Flight Opportunities for Students (SAFOS) program. The Louisiana Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students (LaACES) program is the statewide ballooning program, which typically runs for a full academic year. During the first semester a series of lectures and hands-on activities help build student skills in basic electronics, sensor interfacing, real-time programming, mechanical development, and project management. The second semester is then devoted to applying these skills to the design, development, fabrication, and flight of a small (~500 gram) balloon payload. All student teams ultimately fly their payloads in May during a launch trip to the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, TX. All teams are required to submit PDR, CDR, FRR and a science report to document the lifecycle of their payloads as part of the requirements for participation in the program. During the summer of 2019, 5 campuses formally participated in a flight: Delgado Community College, Grambling, LSU, McNeese, and Southeastern. A delegation from Dillard joined us in anticipation of participating this year. For the current 5th year extension, we are financially supporting teams at 8 campuses: Delgado Community College, Dillard, LSU, McNeese, Northwestern, Southeastern, ULL, and Xavier. We also provided electronics kits and course materials to Loyola University, which is participating without direct financial support. We are still planning to fly at CSBF in Palestine, TX in late May of 2020, though the current public health crisis is making that plan less and less likely. The LaSPACE Senior Design Program was developed to offer supplemental funding in support of high-level student-led research and design projects. Projects must show clear relevance to NASA’s mission and ongoing research at one or more of the NASA centers/under the umbrella of one or more of the four mission directorates. This funding source supplements the cost of materials and supplies and/or travel for competitions related to the student project. Award funds can be requested up to $4000; while no strict cost-match is required, we do encourage affiliates to show an institutional investment by putting up some match. We proposed to support between two and four projects and have met that goal by supporting four current projects at McNeese and ULL. The High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) program is a national/international program operated in cooperation with the NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO) since 2005. HASP provides an annual opportunity for up to 12 higher education student teams across the nation (and beyond) to fly an advanced payload to an altitude of about 125,000 feet for a duration of 10 to 20 hours. NASA BPO supports the balloon flight infrastructure and flight operations while LaSPACE services the platform and mentors the student teams. During this 14th year of operation, HASP involved 128 students from 10 institutions from 9 continental U.S. states and 1 additional team from the UK. To date HASP has flown 134 payloads developed by nearly 1,428 students for a total accumulated flight time in the near-space environment of over one week. Due to funding cuts to our base award, we have had to put HASP on hold for 2020. We are using this gap year to perform some refurbishments to the platform and to seek a more secure funding base for operations. During the 3rd and 4th years of this 5-year cycle, we established two additional higher education programs, a formally managed process for Louisiana teams to participate in the annual RockOn! workshop at Wallops and a funding mechanism to offer support for advanced Louisiana teams participating in programs like HASP and RockSat-C. In 2019, we supported five teams of three at RockOn! with participants from McNeese, LaTech, LSU, Southeastern, and Northwestern. We have committed to fund an additional 15 participants (from McNeese, Northwestern, and ULL), if the Covid- 19 pandemic does not cause this year’s program to be cancelled. The SAFOS program established during our 4th year extension aims to encourage student participation in aerospace research by providing funds for the development of advanced student flight payloads. Last year we supported a HASP project at LSU and a RockSat-C project at Delgado Community College. We are in the process of awarding a SAFOS to McNeese for a Rock Sat-C project this year, which may or may not fly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. c) Research Infrastructure Projects: The comprehensive LaSPACE Research Infrastructure (RI) program has the purpose of 1) supporting emerging early career researchers or new research directions, 2) expanding research involvement at minority institutions and four-year schools, 3) fostering collaborations and seed projects to bring Louisiana scientists into the mainstream of NASA-related research activity, 4) technical training for the next generation aerospace workforce, and 5) engaging local industries and promoting economic development for the state. In addition to our formal Research Enhancement Award (REA) program, it should be noted that all of our NIFS programs to support undergraduate and graduate students require said students to be actively working on a research project. This provides both the necessary experience for our students, as well as much needed support for faculty researchers. The REA program, LaSPACE’s most robust and longest-running RI program, provides seed funding for an early career researcher, or an established researcher exploring a new project, with an opportunity to develop an idea in preparation for involvement in a larger funded project. Our 30th REA competition opened in January of 2019 with NOIs due in late March, proposals due in late April, decision letters issued in the summer, and project periods of performance of August 1, 2019—July 31, 2020. We received 14 proposals and based on external reviews and programmatic requirements, we selected four for funding. Our REA’s are funded almost exclusively by the cash cost-match provided by the Louisiana Board of Regents at $250k per year. After completing our 5th year competition, we had a relatively substantial balance of funds remaining, but not sufficient time to run a competition and implement 12-month project awards, so we developed a special competition for supplemental funding for previously awarded REA projects. We identified 24 previously awarded PIs and solicited proposals for up to $12.5K for supplies, materials, or travel in support of their established projects. We received 13 proposals from four campuses and awarded all of them. These awards were intended to have a short period of performance of February 24, 2020 – May 31, 2020, with the expectation of closing all awards by the end of the 5th year extension. Due to the public health crisis many of the planned expenditures have been put on hold indefinitely, as businesses that produce needed supplies have closed their doors and professional meetings have been cancelled. d) Precollege Projects: LaSPACE has established a small but targeted program aimed toward enhancing pre-college education focusing on the training of K-12 in-service teachers with an emphasis on middle school. In the summer of 2019, we financially supported five Louisiana middle school teachers’ participation in the annual Liftoff Workshops offered by Texas Space Grant and Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. WE are also funding a combination public outreach and school-based STEM recruitment program at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, which aims to increase STEM awareness among both high school students and the general population. Last year we funded a project from the LSU College of Science for a Geaux Science for Girls education event targeting a hands-on science experience for a couple dozen middle school girls. A proposal to support the same initiative this summer has just been submitted and is under review. e) Informal Education Projects: The LaSPACE informal education and public outreach program was developed to provide supplemental learning experiences about NASA projects and science results for the general public, as well as to augment STEM learning in the formal environment. For the last few years, we have been successful in bringing the MARS Truck, or Mobile Astronomy Resource System, to a variety of general public events and school-based events. During the summer of 2019, we supported 12 events to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. Several members of the central LaSPACE Management Team developed a program inspired by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Global Launch initiative. LaSPACE staff adapted Straw and Stomp Rocket instructions from the Rocket Center and JPL respectively, procured and compiled materials into kits, and distributed kits to committed affiliates around the state in support of 11 discrete workshops. We also curated some curriculum to inform participants about the Apollo program overall, Apollo 11 specifically, and current plans for NASA to return to the moon. In addition to the 11 workshops held over the summer, LaSPACE partnered with LPB & the Baton Rouge Library to host a preview screening of the PBS Documentary Chasing the Moon. LaSPACE faculty at LSU, Dr. Guzik in Physics and Dr. Karunatillake in Geology, were joined by Chris Kersey, the manager of the Highland Road Park Observatory to participate in a panel discussion following the screening. With the help of 5 LaSPACE affiliate institutions, we were able to support a total of 12 events across the state on multiple days building up to, and including, launch day. Five events were hosted at public libraries, 3 events took place on affiliate college campuses, 2 events were held at an observatory, 1 event was offered during a community festival, and 1 was incorporated into a summer camp.

E. MILESTONES We have reproduced here the milestones chart included as Appendix B in our 5th Year Extension proposal: Louisiana Space Grant Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Activity Milestones 2019-2020 April 19 May 19 June 19 July 19 Aug 19 Sept 19 Oct 19 Nov 19 Dec 19 Jan 20 Feb 20 March 20 April 20 May 20 June 20 Release Solicitations for GSRA, LaACES, LURA, REA, Senior Design, x HIS Programs Accept & Review Proposals for GSRA, LaACES, LURA, REA, Senior x Design, HIS Programs Issue Subawards for Top Ranked GSRA, LaACES, LURA, REA, Senior x Design, HIS Proposals

Standard Period of Performance x Start Dates for GSRA, LaACES, LURA, REA, Senior Design, HIS Proposals Release K-12/ Informal Ed x Solication Accept, Review, & Award K- 12/Informal Ed proposals as funds x permit Release SAFOS Solicitation x Accept, Review, & Award SAFOS x proposals as funds permit Release HASP Call for Payloads x Accept, Review, & Select HASP x Payloads for 2020 Flight All-Hands LaSPACE Teleconference x x x x Annual 2-day LaSPACE/ EPSCoR x Statewide Meeting Annual LaACES Launch at CSBF x x Annual HASP integration at CSBF x Annual HASP Flight at Ft Sumner x APDs Due to NASA x OEPM Entries & Data Sheets due to x NASA

All of the milestones listed in this chart have been achieved, except for initiating HASP 2020 and our May 2020 LaACES flight is in jeopardy due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to funding cuts, LaSPACE has put HASP on hiatus. The LaACES flight at CSBF has not be cancelled as of the writing of this report. As documented in our NCE justification, the majority of awards issued during this final award year will need more time to complete due to a normal subaward cycle and complications from the Covid-19 public health crisis will only increase this need. The final remaining milestone is to host a webinar meeting for all affiliates in the remaining quarter, which will likely be scheduled for June.

F. PROGRAM CONTRIBUTIONS TO NASA EDUCATION PERFORMANCE GOALS • Diversity: LaSPACE has always been an open consortium, offering membership to any organization that shares the consortium's goals and objectives and wishes to join. The LaSPACE network includes 33 affiliates that represent the social and economic diversity across the state. Of the 24 universities and colleges that are part of LaSPACE, 17 (or over 70%) have been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Minority Institution or eligible for Title III and Title V programs at least once between 2010 and 2020 (marked by a ‘*’ in the list on page 8 of this report). Included in these numbers are five of the six Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) in Louisiana. The most recent NCES statistics (2017) show a statewide underrepresented minority enrollment of ~37.5 and 60% female enrollment in all disciplines. The Louisiana Board of Regents’ Statewide Student Profile System shows enrollment data in STEM fields for Fall 2018 across the state to be 32% for underrepresented minorities and 37% for women. Our targets are to surpass both benchmarks by 3 points each (35% for underrepresented minorities and 40% for women). The LaSPACE Council, comprised of institutional representatives from each active affiliate and the management team at LSU, includes 5 underrepresented minorities and 12 women. Of the 55 subawards issued during the 5th year extension 21 of the PIs are women (38%). • Minority Serving Institution Collaborations: Five of the six Historically Black Universities and Colleges (HBCUs) and two of the four Primarily Black Institutions in Louisiana are affiliates of LaSPACE. HBCUs Dillard University, Grambling State University, Southern University and A&M in Baton Rouge (SUBR), Southern University in New Orleans (SUNO), and Xavier University of Louisiana are all active members of the consortium, as are PBIs Baton Rouge Community College and Delgado Community College. Three of the campuses participating in this year’s LaACES ballooning program are Minority Serving Institutions, Delgado, Dillard, & Xavier. Dillard, SUBR, SUNO, and Xavier all have active NIFS programs under our new HBCU Institutional Scholars (HIS) Program, which aims to develop a small focused program to train students on HBCU campuses for research careers via experiences not traditionally found inside the classroom. Delgado Community College has received their first MIRO award this year and the Assistant Director has sat in on technical meetings with the MUREP project officer and has offered advice and feedback to the PI on requirements and programming. Finally, the Assistant Director has presented our HIS program to audiences at the 2019 Fall Regional Space Grant Meeting in Nashville and as part of a best practices session during the 2020 Spring National Meeting in D.C.

• Office of Education Annual Performance Indicators (APIs): 1 o API 3.3.3: STEM 19-1 16 direct awards (7 to women; 7 to underrepresented minorities) 2 o API 3.3.5: STEM 19-5 Unknown 1We have not received any demographic data on our HBCU Institutional Scholars projects at Dillard, SUBR, SUNO, and Xavier. These programs recruit students after we award them. Our LURA and GSRA programs require a single student identified in advance, so only those students are reflected here. We anticipate approximately 40 NIFS funded students from our HIS awards and expect a majority of those funded to be underrepresented and for a third to be female. The total number of significantly direct funded students will increase when we collect all the data this spring and the number of underrepresented students will correspondingly rise. Additionally, we are not counting students supported under our other program areas: Higher Education and Research Infrastructure because that data has not been reported to us either. 2Cannot provide a number. This APD reports on projects in progress and publications/presentations typically occur after the period of performance has concluded.

G. IMPROVEMENTS MADE IN THE PAST YEAR During this most recent program year, the LaSPACE Management Team has made numerous improvements to the administration of our overall program, as well as to the design of some of the projects we directly manage and execute. Program Management / Data Collection: In order to both streamline our collection process and to ensure the security of sensitive information, we developed and implemented a new system for collecting student demographics. We investigated a number of options for the secure collection of student data. We reviewed a number of professional solutions already available, considered building a custom form from scratch, and also looked into contracting with Education Programs Support Services, which a number of our sister consortia use. During our investigation, we discovered that we had access to Microsoft Forms as a part of LSU’s subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 suite. Microsoft forms is HIPAA, BAA, FERPA, Category C, and GDPR compliant. Microsoft forms is a simple application, which is relatively easy to use to create surveys, quizzes, and polls. It was developed with educators in mind and can easily export collected data into Excel spreadsheets. We are currently piloting this collection method during this 5th year extension and intend to fully implement it during year 1 of our next cycle. Updates to Student Ballooning Course (LaACES): 1) Updates to the LaACES hardware and curriculum completed last year are being piloted this year at the lead institution, LSU, and at Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSULA), an affiliate newly participating in our ballooning program. Partnering a veteran team with a novice team will allow us to extensively test the accessibility and adaptability of the new hardware and lectures. With lessons learned from these two campuses, we will roll out the updated LaACES program to all participating affiliates during the 2020-2021 program year. 2) LaSPACE is also looking into ways to involve high school students in our established, entry level student ballooning program, LaACES. The Project PI at NSULA has recruited two students from the nearby Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA), a state-supported residential high school with competitive admissions for high- achieving, highly motivated students. Additionally, an LSU physics graduate student is working with faculty at the Cain Center for Science and Math Literacy at LSU to adapt the curriculum for implementation into the pre-engineering curricula at local STEM high schools. MARS Truck Outreach Program: In an effort to improve outreach capabilities and comply with online accessibility requirements, the Mobile Astronomy Resource System (MARS) Truck saw multiple improvements over the past year. The website itself was updated to comply with accessibility requirements with a general cleanup of content and moving the photo gallery to our social media pages. To better collect data required for OEPM reporting, the MARS Truck Request Form (completed by interested parties) and the After-Action Report Template (completed by LaSPACE staff) were expanded to capture more detailed information. To assist with preparation of future events, a small team was formed to establish a reliable and sustainable volunteer network and an online spreadsheet was created to easily collect information from volunteers.

H. CURRENT AND PROJECTED CHALLENGES There are three primary challenges to completing our activities within the initial 5-year period of performance; these challenges should all be resolved with a single one-year No-Cost-Extension (NCE). First, almost all our funding is used for competitive awards that have a cycle time of roughly 18 months from RFP revision to project period of performance (POP) end, so awards in one financial year must be extended into the next. Second, the “communication augmentation” of December 2018 for HQ services of Colleen Fava must be extended to allow for successful completion of this project. Third, the current Corona Virus crisis has impacted almost all of our research, experiential hands-on, and K-12 projects resulting in delays of activities and requiring extensions into fall 2020 or possibly spring 2021. More details for each of these three challenges can be found in the NCE request justification document submitted in tandem with this report.

I. PROGRAM PARTNERS AND ROLE OF PARTNERS IN PROJECT EXECUTION Consortium members (see list below) include colleges/universities [Research Intensive (RIU); Research Active (RAU); Four year institutions (4YI); Community Colleges (CC), HBCU's], business/industry partners (B/I), state education boards (Ed), and nonprofit organizations (NPO) structured as Active Members (AM), Inactive Members (IM), and New Members (NM); the latter are members that signed since our last APD. Affiliates designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Minority Institution or eligible for Title III and Title V programs are marked with an asterisk (“*”). Each member has an institutional representative/coordinator. When that position becomes vacant, the institution becomes Inactive until a new representative is appointed. As an open consortium, joining LaSPACE is simple, requiring a letter of interest submitted to LaSPACE by an authorized institutional representative, which designates an institutional coordinator. Overall, it is the Institutional Coordinators that have the responsibility for recruiting students on their campuses, publicizing LaSPACE opportunities, and building an aerospace component to the campus activities, utilizing methods that work locally. List of Louisiana Space Grant Consortium Members (Alphabetical) Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC): AM, CC,* BREC: Highland Road Park Observatory: AM, NPO Cain Center for STEM Literacy: AM, NPO Delgado Community College (DCC): AM, CC,* Dillard University (Dillard): AM, HBCU, 4YI,* Grambling State University (GSU): AM, HBCU, 4YI,* Louisiana Arts and Science Museum / Pennington Planetarium (LASM): IM, NPO Louisiana Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE): AM, Ed Louisiana Board of Regents (BOR) (Co-founding Institution): AM, Ed Louisiana Business and Technology Center (LBTC): AM, B/I Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) AM, NPO Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) (Co-founding/ Lead Institution): AM, RIU Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S): AM, RAU Louisiana State University Alexandria (LSU-A): AM, 4YI,* Louisiana State University Shreveport (LSU-S): AM, 4YI,* Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (LSU-Ag): IM, RIU Louisiana Tech University (LaTech): AM, RAU Loyola University (Loyola): AM, 4YI McNeese State University (McNeese): AM, 4YI,* National Center for Biomedical Research & Training (LSU-NCBRT): NM, NPO Nicholls State University (Nicholls): AM, RAU,* Northshore Technical Community College (NTCC): AM, CC Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NWSU): AM, 4YI,* Nunez Community College (NCC): NM, CC* River Parishes Community College (RPCC): AM, NM, CC,* SciPort Louisiana’s Science Center (SciPort): IM, NPO Southeastern Louisiana University (SELU): AM, 4YI,* Southern University and A & M College (SUBR) (Co-founding Institution): AM, HBCU, RAU,* Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO): AM, HBCU, 4YI,* Tulane University (Tulane): AM, RIU University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL): AM, RAU,* University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM): AM, 4YI,* University of New Orleans (UNO): AM, RAU,* Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier): AM, HBCU, RAU,* The Council (comprised of all institutional reps and the central management team at LSU) is the primary oversight and advisory board for LaSPACE. The Council meets annually for a formal two-day meeting during the fall semester at one of our affiliate’s campuses with webinar meetings held during the other 3 quarters of the calendar year. General administration and management is the responsibility of the LaSPACE Management Team at LSU.