Courtney Stadd won’t do any jail time after being convicted on ethics charges stemming from an incident in 2005 when he worked at NASA. Stadd, found guilty in August of helping steer $9.6 million in earmarked funds to Mississippi State University, a client of his private consulting practice, was sentenced to three years of probation as well as six months of electronic monitoring and fined $2,500. The government had asked for a one-year prison term, but that was rejected by the judge, who said that prison time “was not needed to protect the public”. As a Space News article notes, the courtroom was “packed with many of Stadd’s friends and aerospace industry colleagues”, and the judge said she had received “tons of letters” supporting Stadd.