Image courtesy of Clark Construction.

Reston rising: After 35 months of construction, Clark Construction Group has reached substantial completion on 1950 and 2000 Opportunity Way, the first two office buildings to be delivered in the next phase of Boston Properties’ new transit-oriented development that expands Reston Town Center. The 1.1 million square foot development project, which is located adjacent to the future Reston Town Center Metro Station, includes two office towers, street retail, a shared below-grade parking facility, a public plaza, and multiple outdoor amenity and green spaces. “The next phase of Reston Town Center will be a great contribution to the growth and revitalization of the northwestern Fairfax County community,” said Terry Simon, a senior vice president at Clark Construction Group. At its completion, Boston Properties’ full expansion of the next phase of Reston Town Center will include 4.4 million square feet of development featuring office buildings, residential towers, retail and hotel spaces, and over six acres of public open space. citzbiz has more.

Data center development: Fairfax County is evaluating a proposal to demolish an industrial park near Washington Dulles International Airport in Herndon in favor of four data centers and a power substation. Under the plans, the warehouse buildings within Renaissance Park, a 60-acre property, would be leveled in phases and replaced with 2.3 million gross square feet of data centers. Roughly 27 percent of the site would remain open space, according to the proposal. As of Sept. 27, according to data center information clearinghouse Baxtel, there were 202 data center sites across Northern Virginia, up from 188 only a month ago, reported the Washington Business Journal.

Cavalier expansion: The University of Virginia opened a campus in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, with plans to expand to other sites in the region. The campus in Northern Virginia will be called UVA|NOVA. “UVA|NOVA will be the center point of our efforts to better serve the commonwealth by bringing new academic programming and research to Northern Virginia,” U.Va. President Jim Ryan said in a statement. “We hope to help serve those in Northern Virginia who are looking to gain additional skills that will help further their careers.” The Washington Business Journal has more.

Tysons trapeze? Cityline Parters, the master developer behind Scotts Run South, a phased development in Tysons that will take shape over decades, is proposing to activate a vacant 3.5-acre site for as long as 20 years. Within the space, Cityline has suggested potential uses, including outdoor movies, farmers markets, music in the park, miniature golf or a putting green, seasonal ice skating or roller skating rinks, outdoor trampoline and trapeze areas, an “urban beach,” food trucks, and pop-up retail and restaurants. The design calls for a mix of lawn, asphalt and gravel lots, pop-ups and structures such as tents and repurposed shipping containers. The Block at Scotts Run would consume a property currently entitled for two high-rises totaling as much as 900,000 square feet of mixed-use and a park, reported the Washington Business Journal.

We were promised jet packs: Falls Church area-based Northrop Grumman has two Mission Extension Vehicles in orbit providing station-keeping services for two Intelsat geostationary satellites that were running low on fuel. The company is also preparing to launch a new servicing vehicle equipped with a robotic arm that will install propulsion jet packs on dying satellites. Six customers have signed up to get their satellites serviced by the Mission Robotic Vehicle, projected to launch in 2024, Joe Anderson, vice president of operations and business development at Space Logistics, told SpaceNews.

Capturing images: And in more Falls Church area-based Northrop Grumman news, NASA launched Landsat 9, a Northrop Grumman-made satellite to expand an existing system that tracks changes on the Earth’s land as part of an effort initiated in partnership with the Reston-based U.S. Geological Survey. Landsat 9 is now headed to its planned orbital altitude of 438 miles from where it will capture images of land usage and various physical phenomena taking place on Earth’s surface. The satellite will work with Landsat 8 to capture images in eight-day intervals. Researchers will use the data to observe forest health, agricultural productivity, water quality and other visible aspects of the land, according to ExecutiveBiz.

Cybersecurity solutions: Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, which has offices in Reston and last year announced it would create 1,500 jobs as it establishes a $64 million regional software R&D center there, announced a detailed series of actions the company will be taking in response to the recent Biden administration initiatives for implementing security tools and best practices to bolster national cybersecurity. In total, Microsoft will be investing $20 billion over the next five years to design and deliver advanced security solutions that will accelerate the nation’s cybersecurity missions. In a recent ExecutiveBiz interview, Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft Federal, expressed the company’s commitment to advancing the security of the U.S. Wagner noted, “our greatest strength is Microsoft’s 40-year history of supporting the federal government. Microsoft is committed to assisting the federal government and over that 40 years, our support has evolved.” ExecutiveGov has more.

Fair winds: Corbett Technology Solutions, a Chantilly-based provider of communications, collaboration and audiovisual technology, will acquire New York-based AFA Protective Systems, a provider of fire and security systems. Founded in 1873, AFA currently serves over 28,000 customers throughout the East Coast with 17 branch locations. This will mark the fourth acquisition for CTSI since partnering with Chicago-based private equity firm Wind Point Partners in June 2020. Potomac Tech Wire picked up the release.

Second round: Tysons and Minneapolis-based Vensana Capital, a venture capital firm focused on medical technologies, closed its second fund with $325 million in committed capital. The firm was launched in 2019. Vensana said the newest fund — called Vensana Capital II — is focused on investments in the areas of medical devices, diagnostics, data science, life science tools, digital health and tech-enabled services. The firm has made 10 investments so far, including an investment in Intact Vascular, which was acquired by Philips, and CVRx, which had an IPO. Potomac Tech Wire carried the release.

Uneven pandemic recovery: Tysons-based Capital One published a report this week: “The Road to Recovery, 2021 Report,” a nationally representative, ongoing study of more than 6,000 Americans highlights how consumers are thinking, feeling and believe they are behaving in reaction to the financial impact of COVID-19, according to Capital One. The study serves as the first release from Capital One’s recently launched Insights Center, which has conducted surveys every four to eight weeks with a nationally representative group of U.S. consumers since April 2020. Results highlight the uneven recovery as it relates to financial health and well-being, consumer sentiment and outlook, employment, and impact of government stimulus and public assistance programs on those most affected, according to the report. InsideNova picked up the release.

Mummy faces revealed: Researchers at Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company in Reston, have used that genetic data to create 3D models of three Egyptian mummies’ faces through a process called forensic DNA phenotyping, which uses genetic analysis to predict the shape of facial features and other aspects of a person’s physical appearance. The mummies came from an ancient Egyptian city, where they were buried between 1380 B.C. and A.D. 425. “This is the first time comprehensive DNA phenotyping has been performed on human DNA of this age,” a Parabon representative said in a statement. The digital reconstructions depict the men at age 25, based on DNA data extracted from their mummified remains. Parabon revealed the mummies’ faces on Sept. 15 at the 32nd International Symposium on Human Identification in Orlando, Florida. See Live Science to find out more and to see the three Mummy faces.

Dedication ceremony: A grand opening celebration was held at the new Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, Fire and Rescue Station 44, Scotts Run, Tysons, on September 18. The station, which became fully operational Aug. 14, had been in planning for a decade, said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay. It is the county’s 39th fire-and-rescue station, which indicates the importance that supervisors and residents place on public safety, McKay said. InsideNoVa posted a video of the dedication ceremony.

Notable contract wins by firms in Fairfax County

Noblis scored a five-year, $263 million contract from the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to implement the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. Virginia Business

Peraton received a potential four-year, $109 million contract to provide the U.S. Cyber Command with cyberspace operations support services needed to help boost the Department of Defense’s cyber expertise. GovConWire

Leidos obtained a $19.3 million contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support a program intended to provide military and health care personnel with adaptive personal protection equipment. ExecutiveBiz

HawkEye 360 won a $10 million contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to help the agency discover, characterize and map activities which emit energy in the radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Intelligence Community News

ECS secured three National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contracts to provide a wide range of services in support of the agency’s National Marine Fisheries Service, including technical and consulting support, economics and  research support, and video production, photography and digital media support. ExecutiveBiz

Dewberry obtained a shoreline mapping contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide aircraft services for the agency’s shoreline gravity data collection effort. ExecutiveBiz

Octo won a prototyping contract to develop open source software for Navy personnel to access and exchange intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data. ExecutiveBiz