News & Events
When Reid Wiseman ‘97 strapped into the Orion spacecraft in April for humanity's first lunar voyage in more than half a century, he carried with him not just the hopes of a new generation of space explorers, but the legacy of the nation's oldest technical school — one that has quietly shaped America's journey to the cosmos.
A few members of the RPI community had a recent Q and A discussion with NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio. Mastracchio reflects on his career in human spaceflight and discusses NASA’s Artemis II mission, including its risks and key spacecraft systems. The conversation also explores the evolution of human spaceflight and NASA’s future plans for the Moon and Mars.
When Reid Wiseman '97 straps into the Orion capsule as commander of Artemis II, NASA's first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century, he won't be the only RPI alum with a stake in the flight.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) engineers have long played a major role in space exploration, designing infrastructure that makes sure space operations are efficient, precise, and scalable. That continues today with Artemis II, commanded by RPI alumnus Reid Wiseman’97, the first mission to the moon since 1972! The upcoming mission will have four astronauts orbiting the Moon in the Orion spacecraft for ten days. Artemis II will be the first full test of the deep-space exploration system that NASA has created with a full crew on board.
A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) engineering professor, Shaowu Pan, Ph.D. and his team of students have integrated agentic AI into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimize the aerospace design process and alleviate bottlenecks.
Two RPI researchers, Ge Wang, Ph.D., Clark & Crossan Endowed Chair Professor and director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at RPI, and Fudong Han, Ph.D., associate professor and Priti & Mukesh Chatter '82 Career Development Chair, have earned a spot on Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) mechanical engineering alumna Clare Severance ’18 has been honored with a place on the 2025 Society of Manufacturing Engineers 30 Under 30 list.
Congratulations to Brendan McGrew (Mechanical Engineering '28, Navy ROTC scholarship Midshipman) who won first prize in the midshipmen and cadets category of the 2025 Chief of Naval Operations Naval History Essay Contest for his piece, Hollow Navy: A Defensive Force with Little to Defend. The essay is to be published by the U.S. Naval Institute. Brendan was honored at the award ceremony, jointly hosted by Naval History and Heritage Command and the U.S.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) officially cut the ribbon on its new Center for Smart Convergent Manufacturing Systems (CSCMS) during an all-day launch event on October 23, 2025.
Clare Severance ’18, B.S., was recently recognized as one of the honorees on the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ prestigious 30 Under 30 list. Clare, a senior Manufacturing engineer at Relativity Space, has played a key role in the Terran R next generation launch vehicle program since its launch. Clare also contributed to Relativity Space’s first launch vehicle, Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed rocket to reach launch.
