Space News reports that Virgin Galactic executives “said Feb. 22 that they remain on schedule to begin commercial human suborbital missions before the end of the year but acknowledged it will take several years for the company to become profitable.” Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Michael Colglazier said, “We remain on track and on schedule to

Aviation International News reports that the estimated valuation of preowned business jets “is up 4 percent from February 2021.” The aircraft valuation “is based on average selling price adjusted for typical premiums and/or discounts, age of aircraft, upgrades, engine plans, and usage, providing an estimate for what the sales price of an aircraft should be.” Asking

CBS News reports SpaceX launched “another 46 Starlink satellites Monday as the company continues building out its growing constellation of internet relay stations.” Monday’s flight was “SpaceX’s 141st Falcon 9 launch and the seventh so far this year, boosting the total number of Starlinks launched to date to 2,137.” Full Story (CBS News)

The Wall Street Journal reported that due to delivery delays of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, American Airlines in a securities filing on Friday announced plans to temporarily suspend some international routes this summer. Full Story (Wall Street Journal)

Florida Today reports that on Friday, NASA “celebrates one year of successful operation of its most technically advanced Martian explorer, the Perseverance rover – and its Ingenuity helicopter companion.” Full Story (Florida Today)

CNBC reports Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said aviation could “potentially face significant hurdles if we don’t manage to decarbonize at the right pace.” Airbus is focusing on “ensuring planes burned less fuel” and emitted less carbon dioxide. Faury said, “We need to see the SAF industry moving forwards, being developed, being grown to serve airlines

SPACE reports that the Progress 80 cargo spacecraft “arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday morning (Feb. 17), delivering nearly 3 tons of supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab.”  The cargo freighter docked with the Poisk module at 2:03 a.m. EST. Progress delivered “948 pounds (430 kg) of propellant, 89 pounds (40 kg)

Aviation Week reports that ST Engineering “will start a passenger-to-tanker (P2T) program with U.S.-based firefighting service provider Galactic Holdings, to convert Boeing 757s into aerial water bombers.” The first Boeing 757 firefighting aircraft “will have a capacity of up to 7,000 gal. of fire retardant” and is expected “to enter service by 2024.” Full Story (Aviation

AIAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 Roger W. Kahn Scholarship. The four $10,000 scholarships have been awarded to the…

The Hill reports that Virgin Galactic “will begin selling suborbital flight tickets to the general public starting on Wednesday.” Full Story (The Hill)

Aviation International News reports that All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Joby Aviation have announced an agreement Monday to “establish ridesharing flights in the U.S. company’s four-passenger eVTOL aircraft.” Toyota is “also joining the partnership and will provide expertise for plans to integrate the air taxi services with ground transportation.” Full Story (Aviation International News)

Florida Today reports that the US Space Force “is seeing near-daily requests from launch providers so far in 2022, a dramatic increase over recent years as the military branch works with other federal organizations to find more efficiencies in how to support launches.” Requests to launch are expected “to top 300 this year, or nearly

Fortune reports that Rolls-Royce “expects a fully-electric small aircraft in three to five years.” Rolls-Royce Electrical Division President Rob Watson said, “We are confident in the technology. Now we need to scale it so it can have a meaningful economic influence. I think that’s where you see urban air mobility and regional air mobility, aircraft with

Space News reported that SpaceX “is prepared to shift testing of its Starship next-generation launch vehicle from Texas to Florida if there are extended delays in an ongoing environmental review.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said, “We don’t have a ton of insight into where things stand with the FAA. We have gotten sort of a rough

FlightGlobal reports that Bombardier “plans to deliver in excess of 120 business jets in 2022 as it ramps up production year on year, and could increase output further as early as 2023 if the market remains strong.” Bombardier Chief Executive Eric Martel said Bombardier is positioning itself “to accelerate deliveries by another 15% to 20%

AIAA members are among the 133 newest members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Academy membership honors those who have made…

SPACE reports that NASA “raised concerns about SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites, including an increase of the risk of collision in orbit, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).” NASA has “concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events and possible impacts to NASA’s science and human spaceflight missions.

Inside Defense reports that Sikorsky and The Boeing Company announced Thursday that they have chosen “Honeywell’s HTS7500 turboshaft engine to power their DEFIANT X helicopter, one of two contenders for the Army’s Future Long Range-Assault Aircraft.” In a statement, Ricky Freeman, President of Defense & Space at Honeywell Aerospace, said, “We’re confident our HTS7500 engine

Space News reports that the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation “aims to launch at least 140 spacecraft across more than 50 launches in 2022 following its busiest year in space so far.” Major missions “will include six launches to complete the construction phase of the Tiangong space station.” Full Story (Space News)

Air Force Times reports that the US Air Force “said this week a contract to buy a replacement for the aging E-3G Sentry…could come in fiscal 2023.” The US Air Force released a RFI Tuesday, asking “how a potential contractor would deliver at least two prototype aircraft to replace the AWACS, including ground support and training

Aviation Week reports that DARPA and Sikorsky “have conducted the first fully autonomous flights of a UH-60 Black Hawk with no one on board the helicopter. The flights involved a modified S-70A optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) testbed fitted with Sikorsky’s Matrix autonomy system under DARPA’s Alias program.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

SPACE reports that the Ingenuity helicopter “aced a 100-second sortie on Tuesday (Feb. 8), its 19th Red Planet flight overall but its first since Dec. 15.” The flight had been planned for January 5 but was delayed due to a dust storm near the Jezero Crater on Mars. Full Story (SPACE)

Space News reports that Astra Space “aborted and then scrubbed a launch of its Rocket 3.3 small launch vehicle” seconds before the planned liftoff Monday. Astra “counted down to a launch of the Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0008, at 1:50 p.m. Eastern but aborted just as the engines started up. The company took nearly 90

AIAA) will host Bhavya Lal, NASA Associate Administrator, Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, for an ASCENDxWebinar…

Aviation Week reports that South Korea’s “ambition to launch urban air mobility (UAM) services in 2025 has been boosted by the signing of a strategic collaboration agreement between air taxi developer Joby Aviation and Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom (SKT).” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Spaceflight Now reported that Astra “has become the first company to receive a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration through a streamlined regulatory regime, clearing a procedural hurdle before launching a small rocket and four NASA-sponsored CubeSats into orbit Saturday from Cape Canaveral.” Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Aviation International News reported that Bell successfully demonstrated its Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) eVTOL “with the use of ground-based detect-and-avoid (DAA) sensors as part of a NASA Systems Integration and Operationalization project.” Full Story (Aviation International News) Bell Video: Bell Autonomous Pod Transport 70 Makes First Autonomous Flight

SPACE reports that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission team members “have begun the three-month process of aligning the $10 billion Webb.” For the first time, “photons from distant stars traveled through the entire telescope and were detected by Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument.” NASA officials wrote Thursday, “This milestone marks the first of

Air Force Times reports that the F-35A “could start flying near thunderstorms again soon, once the Air Force finishes upgrading its first jet for extra protection against lightning strikes.” The F-35A was banned “from flying within 25 nautical miles of lightning or thunderstorms after finding that a crucial system may not function correctly if hit by

Space News reports that a SpaceX Falcon 9 “launched a U.S. government spy satellite into orbit Feb. 2 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.” The NROL-87 payload, launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 3:28 p.m. Eastern, “was the National Reconnaissance Office’s first space mission of the year and the first orbital launch of 2022

Aviation Week reports that “Northrop Grumman has delivered the first production version of the MQ-4C Triton to the U.S. Navy that comes equipped with low- and high-band signals intelligence payloads.” According to Aviation Week, the “delivery is a key milestone in the Navy’s plan to replace the Lockheed EP-3E Aries II with a family of

On 5 December 2021, the guidance, navigation, and control community lost one of its most influential and well-regarded figures, F. Landis Markley.

In an online report, Sky News (UK) says, “NASA has published plans for the future of the International Space Station which could see the 444,615kg structure taken out of orbit in January 2031 and crashed into a ‘spacecraft cemetery.’” The ISS “will continue operating until 2030 following a commitment made by President Biden and Vice President

Aviation Today reports that Ryanair “plans to add up to 6,000 new employees to its global workforce within the next five years to support a massive Boeing 737 MAX fleet expansion.” Full Story (Aviation Today)

Florida Today reports that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket “finally broke a scrub streak Monday, vaulting an Earth observation satellite into skies so clear that the entire process from launch to landing back at Cape Canaveral was easily visible to watchers along the coast.” The rocket carried the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG-2)

Air Force Times reports that the F-15EX Eagle II on Friday successfully fired “an AIM-120D missile at a BQM-167 target drone over the Gulf of Mexico.” The F-15EX, “which was taking part in an air-to-air weapons system evaluation program known as Combat Archer, found the drone with its sensors, tracked it and fired the missile at

Aerospace’s Best and Brightest to be Honored at AIAA Awards Gala February 1, 2022 – Reston, Va. –The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the 2022 recipients of its most prestigious awards, the AIAA Premier Awards, recognizing the most influential and inspiring individuals in aerospace, whose outstanding contributions merit the

Three Honorary Fellows and 28 Fellows Elected February 1, 2022 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) proudly congratulates its newly elected Class of 2022 Honorary Fellows and Fellows. The three new Honorary Fellows and 28 new Fellows will be inducted at a ceremony Tuesday, 26 April, in Arlington, Virginia. AIAA

24HTECH Asia reports that Hyundai Motor Group appointed Dr. Jaiwon Shin “as executive vice president and head of its newly established Urban Air Mobility Division.” Dr. Shin is a “Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society of Britain.” Full Story (24HTECH Asia)

CBS News reported that United Airlines “has launched a program to train the next generation of pilots, including promoting other workers to fill those vacancies.” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said, “We’ve got over 100 regional aircraft that effectively aren’t flying because there are not enough pilots to fly them.” CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg

Bloomberg reports that the US Air Force’s “latest schedule for fixing, verifying and installing improved versions of key equipment on its refueling tankers built by Boeing Co. shows the work won’t be complete before early 2026, or 15 years after the company won the contract.” Full Story (Bloomberg)

Spaceflight Now reports that SpaceX “scrubbed the planned launch of an Italian radar remote sensing satellite Thursday due to dismal weather at Cape Canaveral.” The Falcon 9 rocket is to launch at 6:11 p.m. EST Friday. The rocket is to carry a COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) radar surveillance satellite “into a polar orbit for the Italian

The AP reports that Boom Supersonic “announced Wednesday that it has chosen a North Carolina airport as the manufacturing site for next-generation supersonic passenger jets.” Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro will be the home for Boom Supersonic’s “first full-scale manufacturing plant, including the final assembly line, testing and delivery center for its proposed Overture supersonic airliner.”

Florida Today reports that US Space Force calculations “show a downgraded forecast for SpaceX’s next launch from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, a mission that will include sonic booms as the Falcon 9 booster returns to the Space Coast for landing.” The weather could “begin to clear before the liftoff window at 6:11 p.m. EST Thursday.” The

Aviation International News reports that Airbus “is launching its own cargo airline operation to capitalize on rising air freight demand and the ability of its Beluga transporters to carry super-sized loads.” By 2024, “the new Airbus Beluga Transport service will use five of the A300-600-based BelugaST widebodies for ad hoc charters carrying large, heavy items

Space News reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “will move its next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellite into position over the Western United States soon after launch to speed up data delivery to the National Weather Service.” After the GOES-18 satellite is deployed into geostationary transfer orbit, “the satellite will spend

SPACE reports that the Dragon CRS-24 “cargo ship splashed down today (Jan. 24) in the Atlantic Ocean at 4:05 p.m. EST (2105 GMT), off the coast of Florida near Panama City.” The SpaceX cargo ship “returned nearly 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of science to Earth, including a ‘cytoskeleton’ that studies cell signaling in humans, and returning

Aviation Week reports that Ethiopian Airlines “has confirmed that its Boeing 737 MAXs will return to the skies in the coming days, nearly three years after the carrier’s fatal accident involving the type.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

The Hill reported that scientists “have created the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe using an instrument that has mapped out more galaxies than all other three-dimensional surveys combined.” The map “was created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is managed by the United States Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that The Boeing Company is investing another $450 million into Wisk, its joint venture with Kitty Hawk Corp. aiming to develop pilotless air-taxis. The Journal says Airbus and Embraer have their own air taxi units. Full Story (Wall Street Journal)