Industry News

SPACE reported that the assembly of the “test-flight version of SpaceX’s Mars-colonizing Starship vehicle is now complete, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday night.” Musk posted a photo of the vehicle to Twitter, and “said earlier [last] week that SpaceX aims to start such trial runs, which will take place at the Texas site

The New York Times reports that farming is “increasingly a high-tech endeavor,” as large industrial farms increasingly adopt technology such as GPS-guided combines, soil sensors, UAVs, satellite imagery, and supercomputers to aid food production. While most such technology is used in large-scale production, there is also a growing use of affordable robots and other machines on small,

The Houston Chronicle reports that SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that the first test flight of the commercial crew program is “about a month away,” which suggests another delay on the project. Musk did not elaborate on the cause of the apparent delay, but “the Twitter update comes as the federal government shutdown stretches well into the

Reuters reports that Boeing on Tuesday debuted a “speedier and higher-flying version of a concept plan…aimed at sharply reducing fuel use thanks to its elongated ultra-light wings.” Boeing’s Transonic Truss-Braced Wing aircraft “boasts a 170-foot (52 meter) wingspan that sits atop the fuselage and is braced from underneath by a truss in a design reminiscent of

CNBC reports that Textron’s Bell division unveiled “designs for a full vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi vehicle” Monday at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. Bell is a partner of Uber, which “said in May that it plans to roll out air vehicles, which will look like a cross between a helicopter and a giant drone, by

Aviation Week reported that Denver-based startup Boom Supersonic closed a “$100 million Series B investment round to finance continued work on its Mach 2.2 commercial airliner” called the Overture. “The 55-seat aircraft is planned to enter service in the mid-2020s.” Boom “has said it expects development of the Overture to cost about $6 billion.” More Info (Aviation

Aviation Week (1/7) reports that the ESA plans to “enhance its Hera planetary defense mission contribution with a pair of six-unit CubeSats developed for close proximity characterization of the near Earth Didymos binary asteroid system,” whose moon is the target of NASA’s “planned Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).” The multinational Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment Mission

The AP reports that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft – currently 4 billion miles from Earth – “yielded its first close-up pictures Wednesday of the most distant celestial object ever explored, depicting what looks like a reddish snowman.” The icy space object Ultima Thule “was found to consist of two fused-together spheres, one of them three times bigger

Aviation Week reports that Rolls-Royce revealed more details about a “light aircraft currently under development that it hopes will break the electric flight speed record in 2020.” The Accelerating the Electrification of Flight (Accel) project “builds on the company’s partnership with high-power motor developer YASA, start-up Electroflight and the UK’s Aviation Technology Institute announced at last

The Seattle Times reported that assembly of The Boeing Company’s “first 777X flight test plane is all but complete.” Engineers and mechanics expect to “roll out this majestic jet for its public debut as early as February.” According to Boeing Vice President of 777 Operations Jason Clark, “In the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing the airplane

The AP reported that the “repeatedly delayed launch of a National Reconnaissance Office [NRO] satellite from California has been pushed back another week.” United Launch Alliance (ULA) “said Friday the launch of the NROL-71 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base will now occur no earlier than Jan. 6.” More Info (Associated Press)

Reuters reports that Lockheed Martin “said on Thursday it has reached its 2018 target to deliver 91 F-35 fighter jets to the United States and its allies, as the defense contractor built 38 percent more jets this year.” The F-35 accounts for around a quarter of Lockheed’s revenues, and F-35 “production volume and payments for maintenance

Aviation Week reports that across the globe, “more than 100 orbital launches took place in 2018, the highest rate in two decades.” China, “flying from Xichang, Jiuquan and Taiyuan, led the way,” followed by US companies at Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg AFB, Kennedy Space Center, Wallops Island, “and a privately owned spaceport in New Zealand.” Russia ranked

Space News reports that NASA hopes to see two “long-delayed space science missions launched in the first few months of 2019, one of which will go on one of two back-to-back Falcon Heavy missions.” At a Tuesday meeting of NASA’s Heliophysics Advisory Committee, Nicky Fox, “director of the agency’s heliophysics division, said the Space Environment Testbed

Reuters reports that IndiGo “said it will retrofit its entire Airbus A320neo fleet with a new software upgrade from engine-maker Pratt & Whitney after one of its planes was forced to make an emergency landing last week due to smoke in the cabin.” The carrier will retrofit the aircraft “within three weeks, IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe

Space News reports that NASA hopes to see two “long-delayed space science missions launched in the first few months of 2019, one of which will go on one of two back-to-back Falcon Heavy missions.” At a Tuesday meeting of NASA’s Heliophysics Advisory Committee, Nicky Fox, “director of the agency’s heliophysics division, said the Space Environment Testbed

Aviation Week reports that Airbus Helicopters has successfully carried out the “first flight of the initial serial production H160 twin-engine medium helicopter, as the company prepares for European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certification in late 2019.” The company’s PS2 test aircraft “took to the air” Thursday. The aircraft is the “first to be produced using

Aviation Week reports that Airbus Helicopters has successfully carried out the “first flight of the initial serial production H160 twin-engine medium helicopter, as the company prepares for European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certification in late 2019.” The company’s PS2 test aircraft “took to the air” Thursday. The aircraft is the “first to be produced using

The Wall Street Journal reports that Shell hopes to use artificial intelligence-powered UAVs to improve maintenance and worker safety. The company will deploy prototype UAVs to this end at the Shell Technology Center next year. Shell expects millions in potential 2019 savings from UAV deployment. More Info (Wall Street Journal)

Bloomberg News reports that the “stars are aligning for Tuesday to be quite the bookend to a transformational year for commercial space exploration” as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Arianespace, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) plan rocket launches Tuesday. Pending any delays, Tuesday “will be the first time so many rockets will fly on a single day.” SpaceX

Aviation Week reports that Gulfstream Aerospace set a “world speed record in a G650ER on a flight from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Dubai, a distance of 6,142 nm in 11 hr., 2 min. at an average speed of Mach 0.90.” The flight beat the previous record by one hour, 48 minutes, according to Gulfstream. More Info (Aviation

Bloomberg News reports that Grupo Aeromexico is investigating “whether a drone slammed into a Boeing Co. 737 jetliner as the aircraft approached its destination in Tijuana, Mexico, on the US border.” Images on local media showed “considerable damage to the nose of the 737-800, which was operating Wednesday as Flight 773 from Guadalajara.” In a cabin

CNET News reports that NASA released views of its Mars Insight lander taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) satellite, which “snapped images of the lander, its heat shield and its parachute on the planet’s surface.” The images were taken from the MRO’s HiRise camera. The images helped NASA to “pinpoint the lander’s location, which is

The Washington Post reports that as a result of the “growing number of commercial rocket companies” planning launches on a weekly basis from an expanding number of launch sites, airlines are “concerned that they will significantly affect the already congested airspace.” Given this trend, the FAA is “working on…the Space Data Integrator [program] to better integrate rockets

Space News reports that China’s Chang’e-4 lander and rover “spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit Wednesday following a four-and-half-day flight to the moon.” Following a lunar orbit insertion burn, the spacecraft “entered an elliptical lunar polar orbit with a perilune of 100 kilometers at 3:45 a.m. Eastern” Wednesday. The China Lunar Exploration Project (CLEP) “announced the success

FlightGlobal reports that GE Aviation began the second round of airborne testing for its GE9X turbofan engine on Monday, “during which the engine maker will evaluate the powerplant’s software and performance in hot-and-high conditions.” The latest round of testing will involve “roughly 18 flights on GE’s flying Boeing 747-400 testbed, which will carry the massive GE9X

Space News reports that Virgin Galactic plans to carry out the “next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane as soon as Dec. 13, a flight that could be the first by the vehicle to reach at least one definition of space.” In a statement Tuesday, Virgin Galactic “said the next powered test flight of VSS

AmericaSpace included images and video of the recovery of SpaceX’s CRS-16 Falcon 9 booster, which was towed into Port Canaveral Friday following an attempted landing on an offshore landing platform. More Info (AmericaSpace)

Reuters reports that NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, “launched in 1977 and designed for just a five-year mission, has become only the second human-made object to enter interstellar space as it continues its marathon trek billions of miles (km) from Earth, scientists said on Monday.” Data from instruments aboard the spacecraft “showed it crossed the outer edge

Space News reported that although a planned SpaceX commercial crew test flight “might not launch on a date in early January previously announced [by] NASA, both agency and company officials are optimistic the mission will still fly later in the month.” NASA announced in November that the flight was targeted for January 7, but NASA Administrator

Air Force Times reported that two months after Hurricane Michael “devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in Northern Florida, the [US] Air Force on Friday said it wants to rebuild the installation” in order to station three squadrons of F-35s there. The change, if approved, “would mean operational F-22 Raptors from the 95th Fighter Squadron would not

CNET News reports that conditions “are looking rosy on the Red Planet” for NASA’s InSight lander, which is “now stretching its robotic arm and sending back some new looks that are part-selfie, part-planetary.” In contrast to the agency’s rovers, InSight is “designed to stay in one place and deploy instruments onto the surface of Mars” using

Reuters reports that the Department of Defense “said on Thursday it would start field testing all three variants of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jets in combat conditions to evaluate operational effectiveness and suitability of their weapons systems.” The department expects to complete the testing in late summer 2019. F-35 Program Head Vice Admiral Mat Winter

The AP reports that the Alaska Aerospace Corporation plans to construct a temporary 4,000-square-foot building “to support launch operations at the spaceport on Kodiak Island.” According to Alaska Aerospace President Mark Lester, the new building will allow staff and customer personnel the necessary space to “work on rockets and related hardware.” The building is planned “for the

The Wall Street Journal (Subscription Publication) reports that government and industry sources suspect that an automated flight system involved in the crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 was largely excluded from the aircraft’s operation manual. The decision was allegedly the subject of intense debate inside Boeing, according to the sources. Industry officials said that the internal debate

The Wall Street Journal reports that while US laws effectively bar exporting satellite technology to China, The Boeing Company is nearing completion of a new, top-secret satellite that is being funded by a state-owned Chinese financial firm, according to court documents, corporate records, and sources with knowledge of the project. Roughly $200 million flowed into the project

CBS News reports that a Russian Soyuz FG rocket “thundered to life and shot smoothly into orbit Monday carrying three crew members on a six-hour flight to the International Space Station.” The “problem-free ascent” came less than two months after an aborted October 11 launch wherein a mishap with a strap-on booster forced an emergency landing

The AP reports that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached the Bennu asteroid Monday “after a two-year chase,” pulling within 12 miles of the space rock. The spacecraft will move “even closer in the days ahead and go into orbit around Bennu on Dec. 31,” the first time a spacecraft has “ever orbited such a small cosmic body.” The

The Grand Forks (ND) Herald reports that the University of North Dakota (UND) “achieved a ‘major industry milestone’ on Dec. 21” with “first-ever test flights that will open up the skies” for expanded commercial UAV use. The school and researchers from Harris Corporation and the Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site performed test flights near Hillsboro,

Defense Industry Daily reports that the Bell-Boeing joint venture has won a $23.3 million contract from Naval Air Systems Command to “provide flight test sustainment support to V-22 Osprey test, tiltrotor military aircraft.” Bell-Boeing will offer support and “provide analysis of light test for five MV-22 aircraft.” More Info (Defense Industry Daily)

Aerospace America reported on the news that NASA has selected nine companies to “help the agency boost the fledgling moon exploration industry under a new program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services” (CLPS). The agency made the announcement Thursday at NASA headquarters, and explained that each of the participants will be eligible to “compete for NASA funds

SPACE reports that NASA’s InSight lander, which “touched down on Mars Nov. 26 and successfully extended its large solar arrays hours later,” set a record for generating “more electrical power in one day than any previous Mars vehicle has” during its first day on the red planet. NASA InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman said, “It is

Aviation Week reports that details of SpaceX’s planned “inflight abort test of the Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2019 have been revealed in draft environmental assessment documents submitted to the FAA.” More Info (Aviation Week)

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company is planning to update the software on its 737 MAX jets, which “could block the recently modified anti-stall system, known as MCAS, from continuously running until the plane hits its nose-down limit.” The article adds that this problem may have contributed to the Lion Air crash last month. The update

The AP reports that the US and Britain have reached an agreement to “maintain air service between the two countries after Brexit.” British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling “confirmed the so-called open-skies agreement on Wednesday.” The deal will maintain air access allowed under the current US-Europe air treaty, which will no longer apply after Britain leaves the European

SPACE reports that NASA has selected the “first batch of commercial project proposals” that the agency will include on its planned missions to the moon and Mars. The selected companies “will be revealed Thursday (Nov. 29) during a news conference held at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, DC” beginning at 2 p.m. EST and led by NASA

Aviation Today reports that as a result of new legislation allowing for the “testing, evaluating and eventually deploying” of systems “to mitigate” the threat posed by commercial UAVs, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “plans to begin evaluating related technologies and systems in 2019.” On behalf of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, this month the

Next Platform reports that Pratt & Whitney is working to design a high-performance computing (HPC) environment that “includes more automated workflows, simulations and more crunching of data, and includes not only traditional systems but also big data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), open-source technologies like MapReduce and 3D inspections.” The company has used HPC to

Reuters reports that Airbus delivered its first A330neo jet to TAP Portugal Monday, seeking a “fiercely competitive battle” with The Boeing Company at the “lower end of the market for long-haul jets.” The competition pits the Boeing 787 and Airbus A330neo against each other in one of the “most crowded but potentially lucrative parts of the

Engadget reports that the International Organization for Standardization (IOS) has “released the first draft set of global standards for drone use.” The draft suggests “no-fly zones around airports and other restricted areas, along with geofencing measures to keep drones away from sensitive locations.” The new standards also encourage UAV operators to respect privacy, and they recommend