Celebrate Small Business Saturday November 30, 2013

Small Business Saturday®, a day dedicated to supporting small businesses around the country that create jobs and boost the economy, is November 30, 2013. Small Business Saturday® was created in 2010 in response to small business owners’ most pressing need: more customers. Small businesses have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years and employ over half of all private sector employees. First there was Black Friday, and then Cyber Monday, and now Small Business Saturday® will help drive shoppers to America’s job creators. 

My team is taking the pledge to shop small and we hope that you too, will be playing your part in making this day a great success for small businesses.  

For more information on how to support Small Business Saturday® in your area, or to get great Small Business Saturday® marketing tips and resources, check out www.sba.gov/saturday and follow us on Twitter @NASA_OSBP, #SmallBizSat.

Happy 15th Birthday International Space Station!

The first module for the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian Zarya module, was launched fifteen years ago today, on November 20, 1998. Currently, the ISS is the largest structure in space ever built by human hands, and the international crews have continuously occupied it since 2000. A consortium of fifteen nations have contributed to this achievement and we are especially proud since SpaceX’s, a small business at the time, Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle to successfully attach to the ISS and return cargo to Earth a year ago. 

The team at NASA put together a fantastic inforgraphic detailing the incredible accomplishments by the ISS. Take a look below or click here!

Go Maven!

When I saw the successful launch of MAVEN, or the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvoluioN mission, today, I was filled with a deep sense of pride for the agency’s accomplishment and for the small businesses that played a part in making this possible. I will be highlighting these companies within the coming weeks, delving into their contributions into helping the agency meet its mission. MAVEN will take ten months to get to Mars and will take critical measurements of the Martian upper atmosphere to help scientists understand climate change of the Red Planet’s history, unlike the orbiters, rovers and landers looking for signs of life in Mars history.