Industry News

The Houston Chronicle reports that the recent government shutdown “continues to claim victims at NASA,” which is delaying a planned “emergency system test for the Orion spacecraft being built to take humans back to the moon.” NASA officials “confirmed this week that the launch of the Orion test module, previously scheduled for April from Cape Canaveral, Fla.,

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company announced Tuesday that it has made a sizable investment in “supersonic business jet developer Aerion, as the world’s biggest planemaker looks to tap into rising demand for high-end aircraft that can reduce travel time.” Boeing plans to provide engineering, manufacturing, “and flight testing services for Aerion’s $120 million supersonic business

Space News reports that investment in space startups is continuing “at an accelerating rate, according to two firms that track activity in the sector.” Seraphim Capital data shows that venture capital “poured $3.25 billion into space technology companies in 2018, an increase of 29 percent.” In an annual report, Space Angels, “which unlike Seraphim does not

FlightGlobal reports that Gulfstream has “pushed back certification and service entry of the G600, blaming the 35-day partial shutdown of the US government for the delay.” The long-range business jet had been scheduled for validation in early 2019, but during a fourth quarter earnings call on January 30, Phebe Novakovic, CEO of Gulfstream parent company General

GovCon Wire reported that NASA selected United Launch Alliance (ULA) to provide launch services for the agency’s “first mission to study the Trojan asteroids orbiting with Jupiter.” ULA “said Thursday it will deploy an Atlas V 401 rocket to send the Lucy spacecraft in October 2021 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.” According to

SPACE reported that The Boeing Company is on track to “launch its new astronaut taxi to the International Space Station (ISS)” in a test flight in March 2019. In remarks to Space.com during a Boeing space travel presentation, Boeing spokesperson Maribeth Davis indicated that “if this test flight goes according to plan, Boeing will be ready

SPACE reports that China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the Chinese space program’s main contractor, plans more than “30 launches in 2019, with major missions including the crucial return-to-flight of the heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket in July.” CASC announced Tuesday “that it would aim to loft more than 50 spacecraft on 30-plus launches this

Aviation Week reports that Bell has begun flight tests of the “largest version yet of its tail-sitting electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) Autonomous Pod Transport (APT).” The vehicle will form a “key element of a NASA program” aimed at “paving the way for routine flights of unmanned air systems” in the US national airspace. More

Space News reports that despite recent layoffs and a partial government shutdown, many companies “remain optimistic about the overall prospects for the space industry in the coming year.” In a panel discussion Wednesday at the Space Foundation, executives “from companies ranging from a launch startup to an established satellite operator talked up the state of the

Air Force Times reports that the US Air Force’s light-attack experiment is “set to get a lot bigger, with the service considering adding drones, helicopters and more sophisticated aircraft to the mix in the future.” According to Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force is seeking to understand the answers to questions such as: “What is the

The Orlando Sentinel reports that according to two new filings with the Federal Communications Commission, SpaceX “revealed it is targeting no earlier than March 7 for a second launch of its three booster, 27 engine Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center.” According to Monday’s filings, “SpaceX is targeting the six-month window between March 7 and Sept.

MRO Network reports that Colombian airline Avianca is planning to employ UAVs and cameras to perform some of its aircraft maintenance inspections. To date, the use of UAVs for such inspections “has not been approved for by any airframe OEM or regulatory authority for inspections.” As such, Avianca Vice President of Engineering and Maintenance Miguel Angel

CNBC reported that the US Air Force’s first two Boeing KC-46 tankers “touched down at McConnell Air Force base in Kansas on Friday after departing the company’s Everett, Washington, facility.” The delivery marks a “major milestone for the program, which is two years behind schedule and more than $3 billion over budget.” Boeing is expected to

SPACE reported that India launched its first rocket of 2019 on Thursday, “lifting two payloads into orbit: a military imaging satellite and a student-built orbital laboratory.” The ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The launch was the “first time this rocket was used in conjunction with two strap-on boosters.”

Aviation Week reports that Rolls-Royce is planning to “make its mark on the electric-aircraft speed record with a vision of breaking the 300- mph barrier in 2020.” The company is “championing electric flight” through innovations such as the company’s “E-fan demonstrator, working with Airbus and Siemens on a hybrid-electric propulsion system on an Avro RJ100 regional

Space News reports that Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson “now expects to fly on the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle around the middle of this year after a series of test flights starting in the next several weeks.” In an interview Thursday on “CBS This Morning,” Branson reiterated his plans to fly “into space later this year

The AP reports that Blue Origin plans to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new rocket engine production facility Friday in Huntsville, Alabama. The plant will produce Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, “which will power the next generation of rockets produced by United Launch Alliance in Decatur.” The engine will be powered “by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas,”

GovCon Wire reports that a joint venture of The Boeing Company and Bell Helicopter won a potential $143.8 million Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) contract to “engineer and provide logistics support for the U.S. military’s V-22 Osprey tiltrotor planes.” The Bell Boeing Joint Program Office will “deploy field personnel and support equipment as well as perform maintenance

CNN reports that the “distinctive” Boeing 727 made its last passenger flight on a domestic Iranian route operated by Iran Aseman Airlines. More Info (CNN)

UPI reported that a metallic 3D-printed component has been installed on an “operational F-22 Raptor for the first time, which the Air Force hopes will lower costs and reduce maintenance time.” The titanium cockpit part was “installed by the 574th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah on Wednesday,” and replaced a conventional

Space News reported that Blue Origin rescheduled a test flight of the company’s “New Shepard suborbital vehicle for Jan. 22 as the company edges closer to flying people into space.” The company announced the new launch date for the NS-10 flight on Sunday. Blue Origin will launch the mission from a test site in West Texas.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Blue Origin has “shared a new video rendering of what launches would be like beginning in the company’s target date of 2021 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.” New Glenn launches will “take place at Launch Complex 36 for commercial, civil and national security customers, the company said.” The company is slated

Aviation Week reports that Collins Aerospace has been selected to supply the avionics for NASA’s “X-59A QueSST low-boom supersonic flight demonstrator, now under development by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works.” Collins will provide “flight-deck avionics and an enhanced vision system,” as well as assist Lockheed with “developmental engineering support to tailor its Pro Line Fusion avionics system

The Hill reports that the Iridium satellite network officially launched last week is “meant to make it impossible for commercial airplanes to go missing, according to a new CBS report.” The new Iridium Communications satellites “will have improved airplane-tracking abilities, which could reduce the number of flights that vanish per year.” Aireon CEO Don Thoma said

Bloomberg News reports that the Defense Intelligence Agency “released a report Wednesday saying China is likely developing a long-range bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons and a space-based early warning system it could use to more quickly respond to an attack.” More Info (Bloomberg News)

Aviation Today reports that on Monday, the FAA released a “draft rulemaking proposal seeking feedback from the public on ways to limit the public safety and national security risks of operating small drones in the national airspace.” The advance notice is a step by the agency to “improve the integration of small unmanned aircraft systems…into the

Aviation Week reports that Airbus’ A3 subsidiary has completed a second “Vahana electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) technology demonstrator.” The Alpha 2 aircraft is “based at Pendleton, Oregon as a backup for the first Vahana, which is undergoing flight testing.” The first Vahana is undergoing transition testing, and “has not yet flown with the wings tilted fully down,

The AP reports that China exchanged data with NASA regarding its “recent mission to land a Chinese spacecraft on the far side of the moon, the Chinese space agency said Monday, in what was reportedly the first such collaboration since an American law banned joint space projects with China that do not have prior congressional approval.” Chinese

Aviation Week reports that the US Army plans to demonstrate a “small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that can be launched from its manned helicopters and unmanned aircraft and controlled from the cockpit.” The Air Launched Effects (ALE) program “aims to develop a family of small UAS that would team with other manned and unmanned platforms to

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