RNASA Honors Draper Employee for Robotic Lander Work

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) honored Bobby Cohanim, a Draper Laboratory employee, for his role in the development and demonstration of guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) systems for robotic landers during an April 27 ceremony.

Cohanim, Draper’s group leader for mission design, received RNASA’s Stellar Award in the early career category for his “outstanding technical leadership” in developing and testing precision GN&C for unmanned systems that could land on planets like the Moon and Mars, as well as asteroids.

RNASA, which is based in Houston, Texas, honors individuals and teams from the government, military, and industry based on the potential that the honorees’ work holds for advancing future activities in space. The Space Center Rotary Club established RNASA in 1985 in order to recognize outstanding achievements in space and promote the benefits of space exploration.

RNASA also recognized Draper with a Stellar Award nomination in the team category for its role developing GN&C flight software on NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle team. Draper engineers working on the Orion effort included Ellis King, Ryan Odegard, Ian Mitchell, and Mark Jackson. Mitchell also received an individual Stellar Award nomination in the mid-career category for his work on NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.