FlightGlobal reports that FedEx received “the first Cessna SkyCourier turboprop” from Textron Aviation. This makes FedEx the “launch customer of the clean-sheet SkyCourier, which Textron Aviation markets as a cargo and special-mission aircraft, and as a 19-passenger airliner.” FedEx placed an order for “50 of the aircraft, which are powered by twin Pratt & Whitney

The New York Times reported on space tourism industries such as the passenger flights offered by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Currently, “the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights.” However, the Federal Aviation Administration “has yet

Aviation International News reported that Textron Aviation “has received FAA type certification on its newest Cessna 560XL variant – the Citation XLS Gen2, which was introduced at the 2021 NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas.” Full Story (Aviation International News)

Space News reports that The Boeing Company and NASA “say they’re confident they have resolved a valve issue that delayed a test flight of the company’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle last year and are ready to try again later this month.” Boeing on Thursday “moved the Starliner spacecraft from a processing facility at the

Inside Defense reports that The Boeing Company is planning to “move its global headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, VA.” In addition, the company said Thursday it will “develop a research & technology hub in the area to harness and attract engineering and technical capabilities.” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said: “We are excited to build

Aviation Week reports that Hydroplane “has received a second U.S. Air Force small business contract to demonstrate a fuel cell-based powerplant. The Los Angeles-based company plans to fly the system in a Piper Cherokee light aircraft in 2023.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

CNN reports, “Three NASA astronauts and a European astronaut are returning home from the International Space Station, capping off their six-month mission during which they worked alongside Russian cosmonauts and hosted the first all-private crew to visit the orbiting outpost.” CNN reports the astronauts “climbed aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after midnight and detached

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports the launch of the first Dream Chaser spacecraft could take place by this time next year. The first Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, “has undergone aeroshell and wing deployment system installation at the company’s headquarters in Colorado, shown in a time-lapse video posted to the company’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.” Dream Chaser

Seapower Magazine reports that the 2022 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, released this week, reduces the “number of F-35Bs in some squadrons from 16 to 10 aircraft.” Lt. Gen. Mark Wise, deputy commandant for Aviation, told reporters on Monday that the change in the numbers in the F-35 squadrons “really had to do with what is

Aviation Week reports that the Russian Aerospace Forces “conducted the first operational launch of a light Angara 1.2 rocket from Plesetsk spaceport in the northern part of the country on April 29. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the launch vehicle successfully orbited the Cosmos-2555 military satellite.” Full Story (Aviation Week)        

Aviation International News reports that “Florida-based kit helicopter maker Vertical Aviation Technologies (VAT) is seeking a strategic partner to produce an updated, certified version of the Sikorsky S-52.” VAT has built an “experimental kit version derived from that aircraft under the name Hummingbird since 1991 after acquiring the engineering data, flight-test data, and drawings from Sikorsky

Business Insider reports that the “head of Russia’s space agency on Saturday said that the country would leave the International Space Station, which Moscow said is the result of economic sanctions imposed as a result of the country’s conflict in Ukraine.” In an interview with two Russian state news agencies — Tass and RIA Novosti

Aviation Week reported that Vertical Aerospace “has pushed back certification and first deliveries of its VX4 air taxi to 2025, from 2024, as it prepares to begin flight tests of its full-scale demonstrator in summer 2022.” Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Spaceflight Now reported that SpaceX “continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days.” Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

CNN reports that the James Webb Space Telescope is now “completely aligned, according to the NASA’s Webb team.” Webb “will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.” The first

SPACE reports that NASA’s new “X-59 supersonic jet arrived this month at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale for assembly, ahead of a flight test expected this year.” NASA said April 18, “With its return to California, the X-59 will undergo further ground tests as it approaches full completion of its development and continues to

Aviation Week reports that the Crew-4 Dragon spacecraft “docked to the International Space Station (ISS) late April 27, delivering four U.S. and European astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Aviation Week reports that LCI “has placed a firm order for 50 Beta Technologies Alia-250 electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) with an option for another 75.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Space.com reports SpaceX successfully launched the NASA SpaceX Crew-4 mission early Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are on their way to the ISS, following launch at 3:52 a.m. EDT. The astronauts are expected

Spaceflight Now reports that NASA rolled the SLS rocket for the Artemis 1 mission “back inside the Vehicle Assembly Building before dawn Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center, moving into the hangar for repairs after technical problems prevented teams from completing a countdown dress rehearsal earlier this month.” NASA officials “hope to complete the repairs

Digital Engineering reports that AIAA has announced “the winners of the 26th annual AIAA/Textron Aviation/Raytheon Technologies Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition.” First place goes to the Georgia Institute of Technology, second place to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and third place to FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences. The DBF objective for 2022 “was to design, build and test an

Space.com reports that the Ax-1 mission’s four crewmembers returned to Earth Monday, successfully concluding “the first-ever all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.” The SpaceX crew capsule “carrying the four crewmembers … splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida” Monday at 1:06 p.m. EDT, “bringing the groundbreaking 17-day flight to

Aviation Week reports that NASA’s long-running Osiris-Rex mission “to the asteroid Bennu has received a nine-year, $200 million extension and the promise of a new name, Osiris-Apophis Explorer (Osiris-Apex), as it travels to its new second destination, Apophis, an asteroid that is to make a close approach to Earth.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Aviation Week reports that the US Marine Corps “says the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion reached the initial operational capability (IOC) milestone on April 22, completing a 17-year journey from the award of the development contract in 2005.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Bloomberg reported that US airlines are experiencing an ongoing pilot shortage, “but a purging of employees at the start of the downturn in 2020 has left the industry ill-prepared for a rebound.” American Airlines CEO Robert Ison said, “We don’t have the regional aircraft flying the summer right now [that] we would like.” Ison added,

SPACE reported that there is no timeline as to when all the James Webb Space Telescope’s “observatory components will meet their operating temperatures.” Webb Deputy Senior Project Scientist Jonathan Gardner said Thursday the telescope’s mirrors “are not quite there yet.” All “of the observatory’s instruments are at their final temperature, including the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which

AIAA today announced the winners of the 26th annual AIAA/Textron Aviation/Raytheon Technologies Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition:

The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA “wants to fully open Lucy’s solar array before the spacecraft visits the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun.” Lucy “is producing enough energy to travel nearly 4 billion miles in 12 years, where it will fly by asteroids that could unlock secrets to the formation of planets

Aviation Week reports that Vertical Aerospace “expects to certificate its VX4 air taxi concurrently with the UK and Europe, with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) agreeing to validate UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) type certification of the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Spaceflight Now reports SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday at 1:51 p.m. EDT carrying 53 Starlink satellites into orbit thus “growing the company’s commercial internet network [as] ground teams seek to increase the already-blistering pace of Falcon 9 rocket missions.” Launch, initially scheduled to take place at

CNET News reports that NASA’s Perseverance rover has arrived at the Jezero Crater river delta on Mars. NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said Tuesday, “The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a veritable geologic feast and one of the best locations on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life.” Full

CNET News reports that drone company Zipline will “begin delivering prescription drugs and other medical supplies in May to hospitals in Japan’s hard-to-reach Goto Islands.” Toyota Tsusho, which “invested in Zipline in 2018, will run the operation.” Zipline and Toyota Tsusho “said the service will cut delivery times to 30 minutes from several hours.” Test

Space News reports that poor weather has delayed the return of the Endeavour spacecraft from Wednesday morning to Wednesday afternoon. The delayed return “could affect the launch of another Crew Dragon on NASA’s Crew-4 mission,” scheduled to launch Saturday. Full Story (Space News)

Aviation International News reports that Cape Air “has signed a letter of intent with Eviation Aircraft covering the purchase of 75 all-electric Alice commuter aircraft.” The contract signing “comes nine months after Cape Air chairman Dan Wolf told a gathering at the Vertical Flight Society’s Electric Aircraft Symposium that the Alice could enter service with his

AIAA is pleased to announce the winners of six of the 2022 Regional Student Conferences.

AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher made the following statement: “We applaud the administration’s commitment to not conduct…

SPACE reports that NASA announced Monday that it is to roll the Artemis 1 moon rocket off the launch pad early next week. NASA Exploration Ground Systems Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said, “We’ll set a time for the roll as we get closer and we get through some of this work based on the

Aviation International News reports that construction “is beginning on two vertiports designed to accommodate eVTOLs in the U.S. Midwest. Davenport, Iowa-based Difco has begun building a vertiport in Rock Island, Illinois, while Volatus Infrastructure plans to erect an eVTOL terminal and charging station at Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.” Full Story (Aviation International

AIAA, Estes Industries, and the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) have joined together to inspire the next generation…

AIAA is returning to Wichita with its annual Design/Build/Fly (DBF) contest, April 22-24. The weekend event is hosted by Textron Aviation…

CNET News reported that the United States “has sent 600 more AeroVironment Switchblade drones to help the Ukrainian military counter Russia’s invasion, the US Defense Department revealed Thursday.” The UAVs are “included in the Pentagon’s new $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, a package that brings the country’s total contributions to $2.6 billion in security

  Space News reported that NASA “says it’s gearing up for a rapid-fire series of events on the International Space Station that includes the return of a private astronaut mission and the launch of a new long-duration crew of American and European astronauts.” Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission “will conclude with an undocking scheduled for 10:35 a.m.

AIAA announced the program for its collaborative event focused on growing the Texas space ecosystem and our off-world future…

The Houston Chronicle reports that The Boeing Company has announced that it plans to launch its CST-100 Starliner test flight – originally scheduled for August 3 of last year – on May 19. “Next month, Boeing will launch its Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. They will lift off from the Cape

The Daily Mail (UK) reports that Volocopter “has successfully completed the maiden flight of its first full-size, fully electric VoloCity air taxi, that it claims could transform urban travel.” Full Story (Daily Mail)

Aviation Week reports that EHang “has secured its largest commitment to date from an Asian customer with preorders for 100 EH216 autonomous air taxis from Prestige Aviation.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Space News reports that the US Space Force “in 2025 plans to launch to geostationary orbit three small satellites that will attempt to dock with a propellant tanker so they can be refueled in space.” The experiment, “called Tetra-5, is run by the Space Force’s Space Enterprise Consortium.” Full Story (Space News)

FlightGlobal reports that Lockheed Martin “says a specially configured Stalker unmanned drone successfully completed a continuous endurance flight of 39h, 17min.” If certified “by the Switzerland-based World Air Sports Federation which governs aviation records, the flight would represent the longest ever by an aircraft weighing between 5kg and 25kg.” Full Story (FlightGlobal)

Scientific American reports that NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS)’s massive size “could ultimately be a boon for scientists seeking to send larger, more ambitious spacecraft and telescopes throughout the solar system – and even beyond.” The article also reports that SpaceX’s Starship is even more promising. Southwest Research Institute’s Alan Stern said, “Starship holds the promise

The Miami Herald reports that the omicron variant surge and December snowstorm have caused critical delays to Alaska Airline’s new pilot training program. The Air Line Pilots Association union had warned Alaska Airlines management for some time that a pilot shortage was coming. Full Story (Miami Herald)