Industry News

The Houston Chronicle reported that NASA and SpaceX are planning to launch the Crew-3 mission October 30. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer “will launch on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” The mission is scheduled

The New York Times reported that waits for charter flights and costs have risen due to higher demand as the wealthy opt to avoid crowded commercial flights. Private Jet Card Comparisons founder Doug Gollan said, “Record private travel is beyond the capacity of the system. Some of this is beyond the control of the operators, like

ExecutiveGov reports that NASA has announced that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope “has concluded its developmental engineering stage after passing the critical design review. According to Julie McEnery, the Roman Space Telescope senior project scientist, the team will move forward to building and testing the observatory after completing the groundwork, NASA said Wednesday.”” Full

Aviation Week reports on Rolls-Royce test pilot Phill O’Dell’s comments about flying the Spirit of Innovation, “a radically modified, battery-powered Sharp Nemesis NXT racing aircraft.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Aviation International News reports that “the flagship James Webb Space Telescope has begun its 14-day journey from the coast of California through the Panama Canal to the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, program scientist Eric Smith told NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee Sept. 29.” Full Story (Aviation International News)

Aviation International News reports that “Air France took delivery of its first A220-300 from an order for 60 of the type from Airbus’s final assembly line in Mirabel, Quebec, and officially unveiled the 148-passenger narrowbody to the public during a Wednesday ceremony at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport.” AIN reports that “since introducing the Airbus

CNN reports that the Lucy mission, the first NASA mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid swarms, “has passed all of its prelaunch tests and is set to leave Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at around 5:30 a.m. ET on October 16.” These asteroids “are remnants from the early days of our solar system” and “the

ExecutiveGov reports that “the U.S. Navy conducted a demonstration in August to test the live-virtual-constructive capability of the Tactical Combat Training System Increment II in an operational environment.” Naval Air Systems Command said “the Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges program office, PMA-205, and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise-21 teams conducted the demonstration using F/A-18 and

The Houston Chronicle reports that “Blue Origin will launch its next crew into space on Oct. 12.” Blue Origin announced “that the four-person crew will include Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, vice chair of life sciences and health care at Dassault Systèmes.” The other two crew

Reuters reports that Lockheed Martin announced Monday that it had “agreed with the Pentagon to deliver 151 to 153 F-35 fighter aircraft in 2022, fewer than the 169 jets it had hoped to deliver.” Lockheed Martin “also said it was expecting to deliver 156 aircraft to the United States beginning 2023 and for the ‘foreseeable

Space News reported that the US Space Force Space Systems Command announced Friday that United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and SpaceX “were selected to participate in technology development projects to advance rocket engine testing and launch vehicle upper stages.” The contracts, awarded to the companies by the Space Enterprise Consortium, are “for prototypes that

Air Force Times reported that the US Air Force “finished retiring 17 B-1B Lancer bombers this week, its first step toward divesting the entire fleet within the next two decades.” The US Air Force announced Friday that the 17 bombers left Edwards Air Force Base on Thursday for the aviation graveyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Space News reports that industry officials warned NASA that it “needs to ensure that commercial space stations are ready before the International Space Station is retired to avoid a ‘space station gap’ with geopolitical consequences.” NASA currently plans to retire the ISS around 2030 and calls for a new commercial space station by the end of

Aviation International News details a new WingX report showing that business jets have performed nearly 2.4 million flights worldwide thus far in 2021, confirming a “complete recovery from pandemic lows.” Business jet flights are up 15% in the first three weeks of September compared to 2019. Commercial airline traffic remains down 41% compared to 2019. Full

SPACE reports that NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter “is getting ready for its 14th Red Planet flight, but the thinning Martian air is making such sorties more and more challenging.” The Ingenuity helicopter will test “higher rotor spin speeds to see if it can keep flying in rapidly changing seasonal atmospheric conditions on Mars.” The test flight “is

ABC News reports that The Boeing Company announced Wednesday “it has selected Toowoomba city in Queensland state as the final assembly point for its unmanned Loyal Wingman planes.” The Loyal Wingman will be the first combat aircraft “to be designed and manufactured in Australia in half a century.” Full Story (ABC News)

Space News reports that US Space Force Chief of Space Operations John “Jay” Raymond said Tuesday US Army and Navy units operating communications satellites will be transferred to the US Space Force next month. The transfers “were approved earlier this year when the Pentagon submitted its budget request for fiscal year 2022.” Eleven Army and four

Aviation International News  reports that Airbus is testing “an engine backup system (EBS) that uses a 100-Kw motor to provide electric power for up to 30 seconds in the event of main turbine engine failure” aboard its H130 single-turbine “Flightlab.” Tests include “simulated engine failure across a variety of conditions, including takeoff and landing.” Aviation

Spaceflight Now reports that the automated Tianzhou 3 supply ship “launched and docked with the Tiangong space station Monday, delivering supplies to support the next three-person crew on the complex for six months after their arrival in October.” The Tianzhou was mounted on a Long March 7 rocket and launched from the Wenchang base on Hainan

The Navy Times reported that a Boeing MQ-25 Stingray conducted its first inflight refueling with a US Navy F-35C jet last week. The MQ-25 and F-35C took off from the MidAmerica St. Louis airport and refueled at an altitude of 10,000 feet and 225 knot speed. The latest refueling follows prior tests where a MQ-25 refueled an

  Spaceflight Now reported that the Friday landing of the Tiangong crew after a three-month mission ended a historic day in spaceflight “with 14 people in low Earth orbit.” Eleven people remained in orbit: “seven on the International Space Station and four on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission.” Inspiration4’s launch

Fuel Cells Works reports that the University of Central Florida was awarded an $800,000 Department of Energy grant “to make hydrogen a high performing, efficient gas for turbine-based electricity generation.” AIAA Associate Fellow, UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor, and project principal investigator Subith Vasu said, “The high reactiveness of hydrogen poses challenges to

Aviation Week reported that The Boeing Company currently has around 330 737 MAX aircraft in its inventory and is on track to clear the backlog by 2023. Full Story (Aviation Week)

The New York Times reports that a Russian medical and safety commission approved Thursday “a plan for an actress and a director to blast off early next month to film” a full-length movie in space. The movie, called “The Challenge,” “tells of a female doctor launched on short notice to the International Space Station to save the

The AP reported that NASA “has selected five U.S. companies to help the agency enable a steady pace of crewed trips to the lunar surface under the agency’s Artemis program.” The five companies that received awards are Blue Origin, Dynetics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX. Full Story (Associated Press)

Aviation Week reports that Rolls-Royce “has completed the first flight of its electric-powered Spirit of Innovation aircraft, also known as Accel.” The electric-powered Accel conducted its first flight at Boscombe Down airfield in Wiltshire. Full Story (Aviation Week)

SPACE reports that NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will remain on the ISS until March, setting a new 353-day-long record for a spaceflight by an American astronaut. The prior record was held by Scott Kelly for a 340-day flight. Full Story (SPACE)

Aviation Week reports that as of 2021, “over 4,000 so-called Group 3-5 UAVs – systems with a maximum takeoff weight in excess of 55 lb. – are in service, with Aviation Week Network figures showing that figure increasing to over 5,200 by 2031, an increase of 30% over the next 10 years.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

The AP reports that SpaceX “launched 51 Starlink satellites into orbit from California on Monday night.” The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage successfully landed on an oceangoing platform in the Pacific Ocean. Full Story (Associated Press)

Reuters reports that Breeze Airways announced it will purchase 20 more Airbus A220-330 jets “on top of Breeze’s existing order of 60.” Breeze CEO David Neeleman “said in a Reuters interview the airline had options to buy 60 additional A220s and was exercising 20 of those.” Neeleman added, “This just shows growth is on the way.”

The New York Times reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration awarded over $100 million in grants to companies including Boeing, GE, and Pratt & Whitney on Friday. The grants are “part of the Biden administration’s effort to combat climate change,” as airlines have agreed to target net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, though “it is not

Florida Today reported that the four member civilian crew of Inspiration4 will launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Kennedy Space Center this week. Inspiration4, the first all-civilian space flight to orbit the Earth, is scheduled to launch “no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday.” Full Story (Florida Today)

CNN reports that cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov “conducted their second spacewalk in less than a week as they continue configurations for the new Nauka module for operations on the International Space Station.” The spacewalk was conducted Thursday despite a fire alarm going off on Wednesday night. Novitskiy and Dubrov installed handrails and routed cables

Aviation Today reports that BAE Systems is developing “energy storage and management solutions for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.” BAE Systems Controls and Avionics Solutions Business Development Lead for Aircraft Electrification Justin McClellan told Aviation Today, “Our main focus, I’d say, on battery technology and energy storage would be on high-reliability high-integrity energy storage

SPACE reports that NASA and ESA have pushed the launch date of the James Webb Space Telescope back to December 18. The James Webb Space Telescope has not yet shipped to the ESA launch site at Kourou, French Guiana, and will require about 10 weeks turnaround time from its shipping date. Full Story (SPACE)

Aviation Week reports that Northrop Grumman “unveiled the Scaled Composites Model 437 on Sept. 8 as a low-cost, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) derived from the company’s four-year-old, manned Model 401 demonstrator.” Full Story (Aviation Week)

Air Force Times reports that the US Air Force is considering cuts to the number of F-35 jets it had planned to buy as the service seeks to reduce the types of fighter aircraft it flies from seven to four platforms by 2030. The four platforms are likely to include the Next Generation Air Dominance system,

SPACE reports that NASA’s Perseverance rover stored its first Mars rock sample Monday. Perseverance is to collect several dozen more rock samples during its mission. NASA Science Mission Directorate head Thomas Zurbuchen said Monday, “Just as the Apollo moon missions demonstrated the enduring scientific value of returning samples from other worlds for analysis here on our

Space News reported that Firefly Aerospace announced Sunday its Alpha rocket failed “when one of its first-stage engines shut down seconds after liftoff.” Full Story (Space News)

FlightGlobal reports that Raytheon announced September 3 that it has “flight tested the air-launched effect variant of its Coyote drone for the first time.” Raytheon said that as part of the test, the UAV was “launched from a canister on the ground, successfully spread its wings and then established stable flight.” Raytheon said, “All test

FlightGlobal reports that The Boeing Company “has delivered the final Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the US Navy (USN), handing over the last aircraft on 17 April, says the service.” The USN has “received 322 one-seat F/A-18Es and 286 two-seat F/A-18Fs as part of the Block II Super Hornet program, which started in 2005. The

Space News reports that Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket exploded two and a half minutes after its first launch Thursday. Firefly tweeted, “Alpha experienced an anomaly during first stage ascent that resulted in the loss of the vehicle.” Alpha was expected to reach supersonic speed 67 seconds after liftoff, but the rocket did not reach Mach One

BBC World News reports that Energia Chief Engineer Vladimir Solovyov told Russian state media that more than 80% of in-flight systems on Russian segments of the International Space Station were past due for replacement. Solovyov also said that small cracks had been discovered aboard the station, and that the problems could lead to “irreparable” failures. Full

FlightGlobal reports that NASA and Joby Aviation have “started a ten-day flight-test programme using Joby’s in-development air taxi – part of a NASA effort to help advance ‘urban air mobility’ technology.” The flights are the first phase of a NASA project to partner with companies to develop eVTOL aircraft. NASA announced Wednesday, “NASA’s goal is to

Bloomberg reports that Jet2 Plc has ordered 36 Airbus SE A321neo aircraft worth $4.9 billion. The aircraft are “scheduled for delivery over five years through 2028.” Jet2 said that the number of aircraft ordered could increase to 60. Full Story (Bloomberg)

Florida Today reports that SpaceX’s new drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas returned a Falcon 9 booster to Port Canaveral Tuesday, completing its first mission since arriving at Port Canaveral in July. The Falcon 9 booster was used to launch a Dragon capsule with supplies for the ISS on Sunday. Full Story (Florida Today)

Reuters reports that Energia Chief Engineer Vladimir Solovyov announced Monday that Russian cosmonauts have discovered fissures in the Zarya module of the ISS. Solovyov said, “This is bad and suggests that the fissures will begin to spread over time.” Full Story (Reuters)

Politico reports that Lockheed Martin and Aurora Flight Sciences “have been tapped by DARPA for the next design phase for an aircraft using ‘active flow control,’ which replaces traditional features such as rudders and flaps with actuators or effectors.” Both companies have already “completed conceptual designs of a flight demonstrator for the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft

In an interview with Space News at last week’s Space Symposium, Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the launch enterprise at the Space Systems Command, “said it is ‘unfortunate’ that Blue Origin is taking far longer than expected to complete the testing and production of BE-4 rocket engines for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.” However,

Aviation Today reported a heavily modified Alaska Airlines 737-9 will be the test bed for The Boeing Company’s 2021 ecoDemonstrator program. The aircraft will “provide the opportunity for Inmarsat to evaluate the use of Internet Protocol Suite (IPS)-based satellite data link communications between pilots and controllers.” The 737-9 has been equipped with “antennas, modems, and