Reuters reports that the US and Japan successfully tested Japan’s “Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system off the coast of Hawaii on Tuesday.” During the test, a “simple, separating ballistic missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii, was intercepted above the Pacific by an upgraded standard missile 3.” According to

Reuters reported that “Boeing Co’s South Carolina plant, where it assembles 787 wide-body jetliners, was set to reopen operations on Sunday night following a lifting of evacuation orders for coastal areas threatened by deadly storm Florence, a Boeing spokesperson said on Sunday.” Boeing “had suspended operations at the North Charleston plant on Tuesday and flown several

Reuters (9/16) reported that “Boeing Co’s South Carolina plant, where it assembles 787 wide-body jetliners, was set to reopen operations on Sunday night following a lifting of evacuation orders for coastal areas threatened by deadly storm Florence, a Boeing spokesperson said on Sunday.” Boeing “had suspended operations at the North Charleston plant on Tuesday and flown

The AP reported on the use of UAVs in emergency situations, saying many local EMS, firefighting departments, and others have purchased UAS as a new tool for disaster response. The AP explained that “what was once viewed as a toy has turned out to be useful in a variety of industries, from emergency agencies to real estate

ExecutiveBiz reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) has begun preparations for Saturday’s planned launch of a “Northrop Grumman-built spacecraft via the Delta II 7420-10, marking the rocket’s last launch into space.” NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will “monitor the changes in the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica” in order to help scientists

SPACE reports that a test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully landed Wednesday “under three parachutes, completing the final parachute test to get the vehicle ready for a journey around the moon and back.” Although the data will not be fully analyzed for several weeks, “early indications are that the test was a success.” During the

SPACE reports that NASA’s asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began studying the Bennu near-Earth asteroid Monday, according to an announcement by mission team members. According to a tweet by OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, the spacecraft’s team planned to “start our first science observations…searching for dust plumes around Bennu.” NASA officials plan to use data collected about Bennu’s

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AIAA CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] September 12, 2018 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the winners of technical excellence awards to be presented during the Space and Astronautics Forum (AIAA SPACE Forum) on 17-19 September, at the Hyatt Regency Orlando in Orlando, Fla.

Space News reports that SpaceX ended a “rare extended gap in launch activity Sept. 10 with the successful launch of a communications satellite for Telesat,” SpaceX’s second launch for the operator in less than two months and the company’s 16th of the year. SpaceX’s launch schedule for the remainder of the year “is backloaded, with only

Reuters reports that the US military and European operators of the F-35 have “agreed to work together more closely to help lower the cost of operating the new warplanes as growing numbers arrive in Europe.” Operating costs were a central issue raised during last week’s meeting of senior US military officials with representatives from Israel and

The AP reported that NASA plans to test new technology designed to “protect spacecraft from heat and pressure when entering a planet’s atmosphere.” NASA announced Friday that the heat shield will be installed aboard a rocket to be launched Wednesday by UP Aerospace from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Once the rocket “reaches space, the umbrella-like shield will

Aviation Today reported on a panel discussing “cutting-edge technologies” at the “Air Traffic Control Association’s annual Blue Skies event on Thursday.” Speakers including NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategy Robert Pearce discussed supersonic and hypersonic technology and artificial intelligence research. According to Pearce, “Hypersonics, for commercial applications, we’re still a couple decades away.” He added that

Space News reports that Effective Space and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced a partnership Tuesday on Effective’s planned satellite servicing system. Under the agreement, IAI will “serve as the prime contractor for Effective Space’s Space Drone servicing vehicle, which is intended to provide satellite life extension services,” and also will help finance development. More Info (Space News)

Aviation International News reports that in his keynote address at the InterDrone conference in Las Vegas, Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell forecast that UAVs will “do for aviation what the internet did for information,” and called upon the industry to work with the FAA on their integration into national airspace. Elwell charged industry leaders to make

Spaceflight Now reports that SpaceX delayed the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite for the Asia-Pacific region “until at least Sunday night, 24 hours later than previously scheduled.” Officials delayed the launch, according to Telesat spokesperson Gerald Nagler, but did not provide a new launch date. However, the website for

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AIAA CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] September 6, 2018 – Reston, Va. –The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce its Class of 2019 Associate Fellows. AIAA will formally honor and induct the class at its AIAA Associate Fellows Recognition Ceremony and Dinner on Monday, 7 January 2019,

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida’s Space Coast is in the midst of a “comeback” that has lifted the area “from the depths of an unemployment crisis at the end of the shuttle program to become one of the premier destinations for aerospace manufacturing and rocket launches in the country.” Kennedy Space Center’s shift from its role

ExecutiveGov reports that NASA plans to conduct the eighth and final test of Orion’s parachute system in October at Yuma Proving Ground. More Info (Associated Press)

Florida Today reported that the core structure or pressure vessel of NASA’s Orion spacecraft slated to take astronauts on a mission around the moon has arrived at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for final assembly. At KSC, a Lockheed Martin team will finish assembly and “integration of the EM-2 spacecraft just as they wrap up work on

Aerospace America reported that after NASA and its industry partners reduce the effect of sonic booms generated by supersonic aircraft, the “next steps toward supersonic passenger jets would be to reduce takeoff and landing noise” and to mitigate the aircrafts’ carbon emissions and the potential damage the aircraft pose to the ozone layer. The current $500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AIAA CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] Topics Include NASA at 60, Panel of NASA Administrators past and current, Space Commerce, Space Exploration, On-Orbit Servicing, Complex System Evolution, Hypersonics, 3D Printing, and an Astronaut Stories Event August 29, 2018 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will hold its

Aviation Week reports that earlier this month, The Boeing Company and NASA tested an “improved engine nacelle liner that offers lower noise as well as reduced drag.” The result comes as engine and airframe manufacturers “wrestle with growing demands for quieter aircraft operations around airports.” The initial trials were completed in early August aboard a Boeing

In an interview with USA Today , NASA Administrator James Bridenstine “all but guarantee[d] his agency will soon be back in the business of carrying humans into low-Earth orbit in 2019.” According to Bridenstine, “Without question, by the middle of next year, we’ll be flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. We’re so close.” The

The Orlando Sentinel reported that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured its first images of the Bennu asteroid last week as part of a mission to land on the object, “collect small samples and return them to Earth.” According to OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, the event “really represents the beginning of the great scientific experiment that is OSIRIS-REx.”

CNET News profiled the increasing amount of companies, which include Lockheed Martin, Aerion Supersonic, Spike Aerospace, and Boom Technology, who are working to design supersonic aircraft “cheaper, quieter and friendlier to the environment than Concorde while minimizing the troublesome effects of a sonic boom.” Lockheed is working with NASA on its X-59 QueSST Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator

Reuters reports that for the last few months, Japanese farmers have been “testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time” if performed by hand. The Nilework Nile-T18 UAV can apply “pesticides and fertilizer to a rice field in about 15 minutes – a job

SPACE reports that NASA and industry researchers are “beginning to consider the use of machine learning and are looking into sharing training data sets” for future space missions. The use of deep learning technology to train computers to “recognize patterns based on training data” has been considered “too risky to use much for spacecraft decision-making,” but

GeekWire reports that on Thursday, in a talk to NASA personnel at Johnson Space, Vice President Mike Pence enthusiastically backed a plan to put American astronauts on a new space station in lunar orbit by 2024. Pence said the Trump administration is collaborating with Congress on an initiative to maneuver NASA’s Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway

BBC News Online reports that as part of its plans to reduce carbon emissions, Norway plans for “all short-haul flights leaving its airports to be on aircraft powered by electricity.” The plan is one of the “most far-reaching promises yet to cut down on aviation’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions,” but to become feasible, the electric

FlightGlobal reports that LATAM Airlines Group expects to return its “entire Boeing 787 fleet” back to service “by year-end, after it was forced to ground more than half its 787s in the second quarter due to engine issues.” The carrier currently has six 787s grounded, down from a peak of 13 aircraft in June, according to

Reuters reports that NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine detailed his vision for renewed and “sustainable” human exploration of the Moon in an interview Tuesday, citing the discovery of water on the lunar surface as a promising development. Bridenstine hopes that the US can make the coming generation of lunar exploration a “sustainable enterprise” through the use of

Reuters reports that NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine detailed his vision for renewed and “sustainable” human exploration of the Moon in an interview Tuesday, citing the discovery of water on the lunar surface as a promising development. Bridenstine hopes that the US can make the coming generation of lunar exploration a “sustainable enterprise” through the use of

The Houston Chronicle reports that the agency plans to test the structural integrity of its Orion space capsule at the Glenn Research Center in Ohio on Friday. Personnel at the center will perform an “acoustic test for the space capsule, designed to ensure that it is structurally sound” before being launched from Cape Canaveral in April 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AIAA CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] Awards Honor Outstanding Section Programming in a Variety of Categories August 22, 2018 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has announced its 2017–2018 Section Award winners. The Section Awards honor particularly notable achievements made by member sections in a range of

Space News reports that an annual Department of Defense report on China’s military capabilities found that the country’s military strategists see space-based systems, and the denial of access to such systems, as “central to modern warfare.” Despite its public statements to the contrary, China is “stepping up the militarization of space.” According to the report, China

ExecutiveGov reports that NASA Director of Advanced Exploration Systems Jason Crusan, speaking on “Federal Drive with Tom Temin,” stated the agency’s aim for the proposed Deep Space Gateway space station to serve as an “outpost” for future deep space exploration missions. According to Crusan, the gateway should be thought of as a “kind of a space

Spaceflight Now reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) released new video of the predawn liftoff of the company’s Delta IV Heavy rocket on August 12 “from the perspective of a downward-facing camera, capturing dazzling views of the fiery takeoff and the dramatic separation of the launcher’s two hydrogen-fueled boosters.” The nearly six-minute video “shows the shutdown

ABC News reported that last week, federal officials “warned police around the country that drones are posing an ever-growing threat to safety and security.” In new intelligence bulletin, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center warned that an attack “could be conducted by one person or several people using a commercially available,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] August 20, 2018 – Reston, Va. – Geoffrey Andrews from Purdue University has won the 2018 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement in Aeronautics. Andrews is receiving the Zarem Award for his paper “A Hybrid Length Scale Similarity Solution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AIAA CONTACT: John Blacksten 703.264.7532 [email protected] Mechanical engineering student winner is from the University of Memphis August 20, 2018 – Reston, Va. – Ken M. Mitchell from the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn., has won the 2018 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement in

Aerospace America reports that the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), known for purchasing large observation satellites, “is learning to think small for some of its needs.” At a talk at the Space Symposium, NRO Director Betty Sapp told an audience that the agency wants to “explore what the tiny rocket marketplace can provide for us.” On April

Space News (Subscription Publication) reports that NASA has called Monday’s test of the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engine for its Space Launch System (SLS) a success despite an unspecified “facility issue” that brought the test to an early end. The first in a series of static-fire tests was conducted on the A-1 stand at Stennis Space Center

Space News (Subscription Publication) reports that NASA has called Monday’s test of the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engine for its Space Launch System (SLS) a success despite an unspecified “facility issue” that brought the test to an early end. The first in a series of static-fire tests was conducted on the A-1 stand at Stennis Space Center

Space News (Subscription Publication) reports that although Arianespace’s new Ariane 6 rocket is nearing completion, the company’s “competitive landscape isn’t getting any easier” due to new rockets being developed in the US by Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, and abroad by Russia, India, Japan, and China. In the “midst of these changes,” the ESA is

Spaceflight Now hosts video of Sunday’s launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 37. More Info (Spaceflight Now)

The Washington Post reports that as the White House promotes its push to create a “Space Force as a sixth military branch and the first new service since the Air Force was created in 1947, a group of government contractors sees a chance to profit.” According to Capital Alpha Partners analyst Byron Callan, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman

The Houston Chronicle reports that a test module of NASA’s Orion spacecraft passed a “mass and center of gravity test” at NASA Johnson Space Center in “one of the most important” tests prior to an “April 2019 launch to test Orion’s primary safety feature: the launch abort system.” The module is being built “specifically to test this

The  Aerospace America reports on the launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which has now deployed its solar arrays. The article reports that the “spacecraft is operating on its own power.” NASA engineers worked “for a decade designing heat shielding” for the probe that would be “lightweight, reflective and durable enough for the spacecraft” to pass into

The Wall Street Journal  reported that local and state officials across the US are working to develop spaceports in order to take advantage of a maturing space industry and increased private investment in commercial spaceports. There are currently 10 licensed commercial spaceports in the US, twice the amount that were operating in 2004. The proposed Spaceport Camden

The  Daily Mail (UK) reports that the Orbital Reflector “space sculpture” will be launched into orbit for three weeks this fall aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg AFB in October. Orbital Reflector, an installation “co-produced and presented by the Nevada Museum of Art,” is the length of a football field in the “shape of an