Industry News

Florida Today reports that SpaceX “teams are working toward a Wednesday morning launch after a previous attempt to boost 60 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket was aborted at Kennedy Space Center.” SpaceX will target a 10-minute window starting at 8:16 a.m. to launch the Falcon 9 rocket, with the Air Force’s 45th Weather

Reuters reports that Airbus “is stopping production and assembly activities at its plants in France and Spain for the next four days as governments there implement new measures to restrict movements and fight the coronavirus outbreak, the planemaker said on Tuesday.” Airbus said in a statement, “This will allow sufficient time to implement stringent health

SPACE reported that “with the next Soyuz mission preparing to launch to the International Space Station, the crew has passed its final exams. But, while NASA’s space station manager has made assurances that an earlier swap of the two Russian cosmonauts on the crew should pose no issues, concerns surrounding coronavirus will likely alter the mission’s

Archy News reported on 45 engineering students from Universidad Pontificia Bolivarianna in Colombia working on designs for an aircraft to participate in AIAA’s Design-Build-Fly (DBF) 2020 event. DBF 2020 is “the most important annual event in which the most brilliant university students from all over the planet, who dream of designing aircraft, compete with each

Reuters reports that President Trump’s newly announced restrictions on travel from Europe “will heap more pressure on airlines already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic” and increase the odds of a government-backed bailout. The announcement of the travel ban “could create chaos at dozens of airports across Europe as passengers attempt a last-minute rush to fly to

Aviation International News reports that “the U.S. military is stepping up its efforts to enlist autonomous eVTOL aircraft for a variety of missions, especially those that would reduce risk to troops, such as moving cargo in combat zones.” For 2020 alone, “the Pentagon has allocated almost $170 million to investigate options for what it calls

SPACE reports that NASA is monitoring the possibility of additional impacts “the new coronavirus may have on the U.S. space program after one of the agency’s research centers had to send employees home this week after a case, according to the agency’s chief Jim Bridenstine.” In a Monday statement following the positive test of an

Florida Today reports that the weather forecast for Saturday’s SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center “promises excellent conditions, the Air Force said Wednesday.” The 9:35 a.m. Saturday launch currently has “90% ‘go’ conditions…forecasters with the 45th Weather Squadron said Wednesday.” The launch is scheduled to take SpaceX’s next batch of 60 Starlink satellites

CNBC reports that SpaceX is “closing in on its first human spaceflight, with President and COO Gwynne Shotwell telling reporters on Tuesday that the company is aiming to fly astronauts to space in about two months.” Shotwell said at the 2020 Satellite conference, “We’re gunning for May. We have work to do, NASA has work

The Wall Street Journal reports that Delta and American have both announced capacity cuts amid the coronavirus outbreak. Delta plans to cut international capacity by up to 25% and domestic capacity by up to 15%. The airline will also defer $500 million in capital expenditures. American indicated that it will reduce domestic and international flights by

Aviation Week reports that as “a series of Block 4 upgrades are set to elevate the Lockheed Martin F-35’s profile for the counter air-defense mission, a top program official shared an operational anecdote highlighting the aircraft’s latent capability against surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.” While speaking at the Mitchell Institute March 9, F-35 Integration Office Director

The AP reports that SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule reached the ISS on Monday, “delivering the company’s 20th batch of gear and treats.” The capsule “will remain at the orbiting lab for a month before returning to Earth with science specimens.” Full Story (Associated Press)

SPACE reported that on Friday, SpaceX successfully conducted the final launch of an uncrewed Dragon spacecraft bringing supplies and new research to the ISS. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 11:50 p.m. EST Friday. Eight minutes after liftoff, the booster “stuck its landing at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 facility

CNBC reported that “now that major brands like Toyota, Uber, Hyundai, Airbus, and [The Boeing Company] are promising to whisk riders through the skies in flying taxis, the dream” of electric aerial vehicles “is getting closer to reality.” The aerial vehicle “market…should continue to mature during this decade and then boom globally,” with “the autonomous urban

The AP reports that NASA has announced the name of its next Mars Rover: “Perseverance.” The name was proposed by “Alex Mather, a Virginia seventh-grader, as part of a naming contest for U.S. schoolchildren.” NASA will also fly Mather and his family to Cape Canaveral to watch Perseverance be launched in July. NASA Associate Administrator for

Air Force Times reported that shortly after Elon Musk criticized the F-35 program, “the Pentagon’s head of the F-35 program countered that the jet will be relevant for decades to come.” Lt. Gen. Eric Fick said at McAleese & Associates’ Defense Programs Conference on Wednesday, “I think the F-35 is a remarkable capability and will continue

Reuters reports that production at the F-35 factory in Japan “has paused for a week due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday.” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters on the sidelines of a defense conference, “In Japan, I believe they shut down

SPACE reports that on Thursday, NASA will unveil the name of its Mars 2020 rover. The “unveiling will occur during a live event at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), which will be followed at 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) by a news conference about the name and the rover’s mission.” The robot is receiving its name

Aviation Today reports that 17 companies have signed Space Act Agreements with NASA in order to compete in the Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge, “a series of technology demonstrations meant to test the readiness of vehicles and systems intended for use in low-altitude, urban airspace.” Joby Aviation was the only company “selected to provide a vehicle

Reuters reports that executives from Airbus and The Boeing Company “said on Tuesday that it was too early to say whether the outbreak of a new coronavirus would affect demand for aircraft.” Airbus CCO Christian Scherer indicated at an industry conference “that the coronavirus could cause an adjustment to demand for aircraft but it would not

SPACE reports that NASA began accepting astronaut applications March 2. Applications will be accepted until March 31. The process is expected to be lengthy, “but NASA expects to make its final selections for astronaut candidates in mid-2021.” The agency has not yet said how many “people will be chosen, but competition will be fierce; the agency

Bloomberg reports that in the weeks before 737 MAX production was halted, executives from The Boeing Company “took a hard look at all the personnel who’d be left with little to do when the last jets rolled out of their Seattle-area factory,” and concluded that “the problem wasn’t that there’d be too many mechanics idly milling

Florida Today reported that NASA has chosen SpaceX’s “triple-core Falcon Heavy rocket for the launch of a high-profile mission to study an asteroid in 2022, the agency announced Friday.” The Psyche spacecraft is “designed to study a metal asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.” It is scheduled for a July 2022 launch from

CNBC reported that while being interviewed by U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John Thompson at the Air Warfare Symposium, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, “The fighter jet era has passed.” Musk added, “Drone warfare is where the future will be. It’s not that I want the future to be – it’s just, this is what the

FlightGlobal reports that the Air Force is considering replacing older Lockheed Martin F-16s with UAVs when the aircraft reach the “end of their service life in five to eight years.” The Air Force “wants to rethink the way it does aerial combat using new technology, including attritable UAVs, says General James Michael Holmes, head of

The AP reports that astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory “have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe, originating from a super-massive black hole.” Scientists “reported Thursday that the blast came from a black hole in a cluster of galaxies 390 million light-years away.” The blast “was so large it carved out a crater in

FlightGlobal reports that India “has concluded purchase agreements for 24 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters for the navy and six Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopters for the army,” which were announced during President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the country. The AH-64E deal “is expected to cost approximately US$930 Million and will comprise a Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) between

FlightGlobal reports that Kratos Defense and Security Solutions has started construction of production examples of its XQ-58A Valkyrie attritable UAV, “despite an investigation into an October 2019 mishap which delayed an expected contract from the US Air Force (USAF).” The contract was delayed while DoD “investigated an ‘anomaly’ that caused the UAV to be damaged on

CNET News reports that NASA has re-created the Apollo 13 crew’s detour around the far side of the moon in 4K resolution “using images from its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.” NASA’s Goddard Media Studios said in a Monday release, “This video showcases visualizations in 4K resolution of many of those lunar surface views, starting with earthset

SPACE reports that NASA has awarded nearly $1 million in Artemis funding to students to create “instruments that will work in permanently shadowed craters on the moon.” NASA awarded eight teams between $80,000 and $165,000 to “continue developing their projects.” The projects include “an Arizona State University proposal to launch spherical sensor-laden probes from a catapult

Space News reports that NASA “is leaning increasingly towards making SpaceX’s crewed test flight to the International Space Station a long-duration mission, a move that could alleviate concerns about a lack of crew on the station later this year.” Originally, the Demo-2 mission was planned to be “no more than a couple” of weeks long. However,

Reuters reports that ANA Holdings announced plans to purchase 15 of The Boeing Company’s 787 Dreamliners “worth $5 billion at list prices, the first commercial order announcement for the U.S. planemaker this year as it wrestles with the grounding of the smaller 737 MAX.” The deal will see the airline switch from Rolls-Royce to GE

Space News reported that NASA engineers “plan to use the robotic arm on its InSight Mars lander to push a heat flow probe into the surface.” The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package team has “spent nearly a year trying to get the instrument’s probe, or ‘mole,’ to burrow into the surface.” However, the mole

Air Force Times reported that the Air Force “is hoping to have a fix in hand for the KC-46 tanker’s most critical technical problem by the end of March, the service’s top general told Defense News in an exclusive interview.” The Air Force and [The Boeing Company] are looking “to sign off next month on a

Spaceflight Now reports that JAXA has approved “a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday.” The Martin Moon eXploration (MMX) spacecraft would return the first samples from Phobos to Earth. Scientists hope to determine whether

Aviation International News reported that Congress is “keeping a spotlight on” aviation workforce concerns “as the numbers surrounding future employment needs remain daunting.” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) said, “Challenges in sustaining this workforce are looming, if not already upon us.” DeFazio “noted half of the 330,000 aviation maintenance technicians in

The Daily Mail (UK) reports that as a part of this year’s GoFly competition, “competitors were tasked with creating a flying device that’s safe, compact, quiet, capable of carrying one person for 20 miles without refueling or recharging, and providing ‘the thrill of flight.’” From February 27-29, the five finalists will exhibit their entries and conduct

Reuters reports that global business jet deliveries “hit a decade high in 2019, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) said on Wednesday, helped by strong market demand for new models.” Deliveries rose 15% from 703 to 809 jets, according to GAMA’s year-end billing and shipment reports. GAMA “said North America accounted for 67.1% of business

Spaceflight Now reports that Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus “cargo freighter arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday two-and-a-half days after” launch. Astronaut Drew Morgan used the ISS’ “robotic arm to capture the Cygnus spacecraft at 4:05 a.m. EST (0905 GMT) Tuesday while the cargo freighter hovered less than 40 feet (12 meters) below the complex.” Ground teams

SPACE reports that NASA and Zero Gravity Corp. (Zero-G) have established a new partnership which would see Zero-G “fly NASA payloads along with research teams from the agency, providing microgravity flights to test new technology and support scientific experiments.” Zero-G “is a company that provides people with a once-in-a-lifetime experience of floating in microgravity on parabolic

Spaceflight Now  reported that on Saturday, Northrop Grumman launched the Cygnus supply ship to the ISS aboard one of its Antares rockets. Launch occurred “from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at 3:21:04 p.m. EST (2021:04 GMT) Saturday after Northrop Grumman scrubbed two previous launch attempts due to an issue with ground support equipment

SPACE reports that Northrop Grumman is targeting a Friday “launch of its next Cygnus cargo ship filled with NASA supplies bound for the” ISS. The mission, which has been delayed since February 9, is scheduled to launch the uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft aboard an Antares rocket at 3:43 p.m. EST from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s

Florida Today reports that Air Force weather forecasters “are expecting 60% ‘go’ conditions for” Saturday’s “10:46 a.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 with another batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites.” The 45th Weather Squadron said, “For the launch window Saturday morning, a few showers will linger off the coast. With low-level winds from the east,

Spaceflight Now reports that Christina Koch, “six days after returning from a record 11-month stay aboard the” ISS, “said Wednesday she’s re-adapting to gravity with no major problems.” Koch told reporters at the Johnson Space Center, “I’m really fortunate, a lot of people…when you’re re-adapting to one G (gravity) on Earth, you might experience some

Reuters reports that FAA Administrator Steve Dickson “has set out in detail a ‘waterfall’ of actions that must be carried out before the grounded Boeing 737 MAX returns to service.” During a briefing to reporters at the Singapore Airshow, Dickson described a variety of “actions that must be carried out.” They include a “certification test flight,”

CNET News reports that NASA announced Tuesday that it will be accepting applications “for its next generation of astronauts” between March 2 and March 31. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement, “We’re on the verge of sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024.” He added that the agency would

CNN reported that NASA engineers were able to revive the Voyager 2 spacecraft following a January 25 incident in which the spacecraft failed to conduct a scheduled maneuver. The failure “triggered the spacecraft’s fault protection software routine, which responds if it senses that Voyager 2 is consuming too much energy,” and caused it to shut

Reuters reports that on Tuesday at the Singapore Airshow, Airbus “unveiled a curvaceous aircraft design that blends wing and body, designed to slash carbon emissions by some 20%.” Airbus had been conducting flight tests of the plane “at a secret location in central France since last year.” Blended Wing Body Aircraft “are complex to control

The New York Times reported that government agencies “are split on how best to handle national security concerns surrounding popular and ubiquitous Chinese-made” UAVs. The Department of the Interior “grounded all those made in China or built with Chinese parts” in October and “reaffirmed” the decision in January. However, last year, both the Department of Agriculture and

Reuters reports that Airbus “posted its biggest January order haul in at least 15 years.” Airbus “said it had taken orders for 296 aircraft in January, including the recently finalised order for 102 planes from Air Lease Corp as well as 100 jets from U.S. low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines.” Following cancellations, it “started the year with