Member of the Legislative Assembly

A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), or a Member of the Legislature (ML), is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to the legislature or legislative assembly of a sub-national jurisdiction.

Australia

Members of the Legislative Assembly use the suffix MP in New South Wales and Queensland.

In Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island, members are known as MLAs. However the suffix MP is also commonly used. South Australia and Tasmania have a House of Assembly and denote its members MHA.

In Victoria members can use either MP or MLA.

In federal parliament, members of the House of Representatives are designated MP and not MHR.

Brazil

In Brazil, Members of all 26 Legislative Assemblies (Portuguese: Assembléias Legislativas) are called deputados estaduais (English: statewide deputies). The Federal District Legislative Assembly is actually called Legislative Chamber (Portuguese: Câmara Legislativa), and is composed by deputados distritais (English: district deputies). Unlike the federal legislative body, which is bicameral, Brazilian states legislatures are unicameral. Members of the Lower House are also called deputies, but they are deputados federais (English: federal deputies).

Max Launch Abort System

The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) is a proposed alternative to the Max Faget-invented "tractor" Launch Escape System (LES) currently planned for use by NASA for its Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction during launch requires an immediate abort.

A "pad abort" flight test of the MLAS was performed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on July 8, 2009 just after 6:25 a.m. A primary test goal was the successful separation of a mock crew capsule from the abort system.

Designed by NASA engineers and reported on the website nasaspaceflight.com on December 6, 2007, the proposed MLAS uses 4 existing Thiokol-Huntsville built solid-rocket motors (built in 1988) placed at 90° intervals within the Orion's bullet-shaped protective cover (fairing). The protective cover was originally designed to protect the Orion spacecraft from aerodynamic stresses during launch, and to provide an interface between the spacecraft's crew module with the LES.

The MLAS is designed with the aim of reducing the height of the Orion/Ares I stack while also reducing weight and center-of-gravity issues of a traditional LES. The bullet-shaped MLAS is also expected to provide better aerodynamic qualities during the first two minutes of flight, reducing stresses when the vehicle encounters the "Max Q" regions of hypersonic flight. The MLAS is also expected to simplify production, as existing hardware would be employed.