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NASA administrator offers UC Merced students a glimpse of their future

It might seem that an airfield filled with old planes is a strange place to talk about the future of space flight. But Jared Isaacman, the administrator of NASA, said Atwater’s Castle Air Museum was the perfect setting to talk about what’s ahead.

Isaacman visited the former Air Force base last week to tour the planes and talk with students, including a contingent of more than 30 from UC Merced. The group included undergraduate and graduate students, members of the university’s first nanosatellite team, and faculty conducting NASA-supported research.

Among the faculty were Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Gillian Wilson, an astronomer and cosmologist, Professor Sayantani Ghosh, an expert in condensed matter physics, and Professor Erin Hestir, a remote-sensing scientist and director of CITRIS, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society & the Banatao Institute at UC Merced. The visit followed a stop at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where Isaacman met with scientists working on some of the technology to launch with Artemis IV, a moon-landing mission planned for early 2028.

“That’s just the opening act to America’s grand return to the lunar surface,” Isaacman said.

But space flight started with subspace flight, and the Castle display includes a F-100 previously flown by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gus Grissom, the NASA director said in a post on X. “A real piece of NASA and American aviation history.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nasa-administrator-offers-uc-merced-students-a-glimpse-of-their-future/ar-AA2bZ9Cx?ocid=BingNewsSerp

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AGCO Opens Advanced Parts Distribution Center in Visalia, Calif., Expanding Parts Availability for Western U.S. Farmers

The 115,000-square-foot facility more than doubles AGCO’s West Coast parts capacity, putting more critical parts within fast reach of dealers and farmers.

AGCO  will open a new, expanded Parts Distribution Center in Visalia, Calif., on September 1, 2026, significantly increasing the range of parts stocked for farmers and dealers across the western United States. Located in the heart of West Coast agriculture, the modern facility replaces AGCO’s existing Visalia location and is designed to improve parts availability, accelerate delivery times and strengthen service for farmers and dealers across the western United States. A grand opening of the facility is planned for the first quarter of 2027.

“We reimagined every step of how parts move, from receiving to shipping, and built the systems to match, including advanced automation, smarter forecasting and a deeper local inventory,” said Stefan Caspari, Senior Vice President, Customer Success and North American Ag, AGCO. “For our dealers and farmers, this means more of the parts they need are on the shelf and closer to home, giving them greater confidence that the right part will be there when it matters most.”

The new 115,000-square-foot distribution center, visible from the Golden State Highway, more than doubles the size of AGCO’s operation in the region. Expanded stocking capacity, advanced warehouse automation and improved forecasting will enable AGCO to stock a broader range of high-demand parts closer to customers. Strategically located in California’s Central Valley, the center will support dealers and farmers across the western United States and AGCO’s full brand portfolio, including Fendt™ and Massey Ferguson™.

AGCO dealers like Pat O’Neill, VP, Ag & Lift of Quinn Company are excited about the benefits the new center will bring their customers. “A parts center of this caliber in our backyard is a game changer,” said O’Neill. “AGCO stocking more parts closer to home means we can get farmers the parts they need the same day, a real win for growers across California and the entire West Coast.”

The facility reflects a long-term investment in AGCO’s Farmer-First strategy and its growth across North America. AGCO designed the operation from the ground up, leveraging advanced storage systems, specialized material handling equipment and digital infrastructure to support the region’s needs and AGCO’s e-commerce growth for more than 20 years. The facility features vertical lift modules; high-density, narrow-aisle racking; dedicated storage for oversized components; rooftop solar power; and electric vehicle charging stations.

The Visalia project took shape over four years of network analysis, design and collaboration across AGCO’s global organization, making it one of the most advanced parts facilities in the company. Its opening on September 1 lays the foundation for AGCO’s continued growth across the western United States.

https://investors.agcocorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/agco-opens-advanced-parts-distribution-center-visalia-calif?utm_source=chatgpt.com

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‘We’re not finished making history yet’: CSUB hosts celebration of aerospace, defense grants

Industry, government and academic leaders gathered at Cal State Bakersfield Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the award of $6.8 million in state grant money to support a series of aerospace and defense projects in eastern Kern.

The brief event focused on the momentum that appears to be building around an industry speakers said has the potential to support job creation and entrepreneurial interest.

One of the event’s speakers, county District 2 Supervisor Chris Parlier, extended the celebration to include a compressed-air energy storage project and a steel rebar plant, both of which are being developed not far from the properties where the state grant money will be invested.

“If you haven’t been out to the east side lately, you have to,” he said, adding that aerospace testing and other assets available in the area “are difficult if not impossible to replicate anywhere else.”

Event emcee Justin Salters, project lead at New York-based talent and tech accelerator the Griffiss Institute, traced the county’s success at winning the grants to an economic development effort begun in 2021 and later named B3K Prosperity. He said the collaboration led to the creation of tactics for overcoming fragmentation within the local sector.

The grants through the California Jobs First initiative are intended to fund improvements to the Mojave Air & Space Port, establishment of an innovation hub at CSUB and enhancement of an engineering workshop open to entrepreneurs in the Ridgecrest area.

Salters outlined several efforts he said will come together during the next two years. One will provide leadership within the local industry cluster, including formalization of a “public-private-federal” steering committee and execution of an agreement guiding collaboration.

There will also be a significant expansion of the Mojave Aerospace Accelerator, he said, as well as a broadening of efforts to commercialize military technology.

Additionally, the industry’s growth will benefit from greater use of the Aerospace Valley brand name, development of a business retention and expansion strategy, and construction of a pipeline of companies exploring expansion or relocation within the region, Salters noted.

He said Aerospace Valley, which encompasses much of Antelope Valley, is one of three industry clusters in California, with the other two focused in Southern California and the area around Vandenberg Space Force Base in the Lompoc area. Salters said there is hope that the three can be integrated in a way that benefits all three.

One-quarter of the grant sum will be spent on a project known as Techgrid that CEO Bryan Went of Camarillo-based Future Laboratories said will foster collaboration and innovation among the U.S. Navy, small businesses, industry leaders, academic, government agencies and the U.S. military.

CEO and General Manager David G. Smith at Mojave Air & Space Port, which scored $3.1 million in state grant money, described three construction projects at the facility that are expected to create close to 1,000 construction jobs he predicted will be “repeatable over time.”

The three consist of the repair of a hangar door at the facility, a roof repair job at a building whose next tenant Smith said has already been lined up, and rehabilitation work on a road that offers access to rocket test sites around Mojave.

Already, he said, the air and space port houses 60 “mission partners” supporting 3,000 jobs.

“We can grow that number and absolutely make it better,” Smith added.

Among other speakers at the event was President Vernon B. Harper Jr. of CSUB, which took the lead in applying for the state grant money.

Harper recalled the region’s substantial contributions to the aerospace industry, saying, “We’re not finished making history yet.”

He voiced optimism for the cluster’s future, including for entrepreneurs looking to find ways to innovate in aerospace.

“We believe in the talent, the ingenuity of the people that call this place home,” he said.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/were-not-finished-making-history-yet-csub-hosts-celebration-of-aerospace-defense-grants/article_72c1ad59-98a6-48c8-bc1a-6a7919e2b32b.html

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Meeting Aug. 26 to discuss potential HSR Hanford facility

California High Speed Rail Authority says to to keep the 500-mile California high-speed rail system running smoothly, operations and maintenance facilities will be located along the route between  San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim.
Each type of facility will perform a distinct role in  maintaining rail infrastructure, servicing trains and supporting safe and reliable passenger operations.
Maintenance activities will operate 24 hours a day across three overlapping shifts, with most  major work occurring overnight between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to minimize effects on train operations.
One Heavy Maintenance Facility (HMF) will serve as the primary location for inspections, servicing,  maintenance, overhaul and major component replacement for the high-speed train fleet. The HMF  will be located along the Early Operating Segment in the Central Valley.
The Authority is evaluating two potential sites near Fresno and Hanford as part of the environmental review process. At full buildout in 2040, the HMF is anticipated to employ approximately 450 skilled day- and night-shift workers. Total long-term employment at the selected site, including associated facilities, is anticipated to range from approximately 1,500 to 2,000 positions.
The Kings County site being evaluated is south of 198 near Hwy. 43 and Houston.