Industry News

Aerospace America reported that the deadline is approaching for companies to submit bids for a US Army-led “Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems” competition for “runway independent” UAVs slated to begin test flights in 2020. The deadline for responses to the request for proposals is October 29. The Army and Special Operations Command currently operate “hundreds of

SPACE reports that the US Air Force’s X-37B space plane “has now passed the 400-day mark” for its classified mission in orbit. The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-5) mission began October 7, 2017 when it launched mounted “atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” The only OTV-5

Bloomberg News reports that The Boeing Company is creating a new unit to focus on new technologies including neuromorphic processing, which “mimics the synapses of the human brain and hack-proof communications links based on applied quantum physics.” Such technologies “increasingly form the core of aerospace innovation, like the networks that may one day manage millions of

Aviation Week reports that with “advanced aerostructures technology already in flight test on an unidentified high-speed military aircraft and ground tests of new low-noise, compact nacelle concepts underway,” UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) believes that it is “well-positioned to penetrate the nascent civil supersonic market.” The nacelle development comes amid a “broader UTAS focus on the business

Reuters reports that Honda Aircraft CEO Michimasa Fujino “said on Tuesday he expects deliveries of the HondaJet to rise in 2019 above the estimated 50 aircraft customers will take this year, as the light business plane maker targets Asia for growth.” The company recently introduced a longer-range version of the HondaJet Elite and “announced a new

The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA canceled a spacewalk planned for Friday following the failure of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last week. No decision has been made on a second spacewalk planned for October 25. According to NASA Johnson Space Center spokesman Kelly Humphries, it will take “a few days at least to sort out the near-term

The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA canceled a spacewalk planned for Friday following the failure of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last week. No decision has been made on a second spacewalk planned for October 25. According to NASA Johnson Space Center spokesman Kelly Humphries, it will take “a few days at least to sort out the near-term

The AP reported that a second NASA space telescope “has shut down and halted science observations.” Less than a week after the Hubble Space Telescope “went offline, the Chandra X-ray Observatory” experienced a similar issue. In its statement, NASA “said Friday that [Chandra] automatically went into so-called safe mode Wednesday, possibly because of a gyroscope problem.” Hubble

ExecutiveGov reported that the US Navy has begun to “formally test the operation of an F-35C stealth fighter intended to demonstrate fulfillment of the service’s requirements.” F-35C integration office head Rear Adm. Dale Horan “said Wednesday that Strike Fighter Squadron 147 arrived on USS Carl Vinson to assess the aircraft’s capacity to address the Navy’s needs.”

The Seattle Times reports that the NTSB “issued a final report Thursday on the incident in which an Air Canada jet nearly crashed into planes lined up on the ground at San Francisco International Airport.” According to the agency, the incident underscores the need to report dangerous aviation incidents more quickly in order to preserve crucial evidence.

The AP (subscription publication) reports that the Pentagon “on Thursday ordered a temporary pause in all F-35 fighter jet flights in order to inspect the fleet in the wake of a crash last month in South Carolina.” The issue revolves around a potentially bad fuel tube, and “affects more than 250 U.S.-owned jets, as well as nearly

Aerospace America reports that “NASA and its space station partners face a conundrum of timing after Thursday’s Soyuz rocket accident, which miraculously left the crew of a cosmonaut and an astronaut in shape to walk away and hug loved ones.” The capsule, which was due to deliver new crew members to the ISS and serve as

AP reports that regulators are “ordering that engine software be replaced on some Airbus passenger jets because of a problem that has caused pilots to abort several takeoffs in cold weather.” The FAA and EASA order covers 82 CFM International engines on US-registered Airbus A320neo and A321neo jets. The regulators “said this week operators will have

Reuters reports that The Boeing Company’s “poor performance” in building a rocket for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) has “resulted in an $8.9 billion price tag that is double the initial budget and could further delay the launch, the U.S. space agency’s watchdog office said on Wednesday.” NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said in

Aviation Today reports that Insitu unveiled a new UAV, the Alticam-14, which has “video imaging capability high enough in quality to positively identify people from the air.” According to Insitu Director of Defense Programs Keith Hirschman, speaking Tuesday at the Association of the US Army’s annual convention, the enhanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities will be

The Washington Post reports that Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday, “We should be in space within weeks, not months.” Branson added that “then we will be in space with myself in months and not years.” Although Branson has previously estimated that Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin would launch persons into

CBS News reported that President Donald Trump signed the “FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018” Friday, extending FAA funding through 2023 just ahead of an October 7 deadline. ExecutiveGov reported that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen “said in a statement that the recently passed FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 would increase the government’s capacity to protect U.S. citizens

Aviation Week reports that seven years after “signing a contract to supply the service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft,” the ESA is preparing to ship its first module to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. According to ESA Exploration Development Group head Nico Dettmann, the timeframe is significantly shorter than the 12 years the agency

Space News reports that NASA expects the missions of its Dawn and Kepler spacecraft “to come to an end in the coming weeks when each exhausts their remaining hydrazine fuel.” During a talk Thursday at the 69th International Astronautical Congress, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Dawn Chief Engineer and Mission Director Marc Rayman “said current estimates had

SPACE reports that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed within 1,500 miles of Venus “as planned this morning (Oct. 3), getting an orbit-sculpting gravity assist, NASA officials said.” The spacecraft “remains on course” for its first “close encounter with the sun, which is scheduled to take place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 11.” More Info (SPACE)

Bloomberg News reports that The Boeing Company CEO Dennis Muilenburg anticipates the company’s prototype air taxi will take flight next year. Boeing is also “working with regulators to develop a traffic-management system for the aircraft in five years.” In an interview Wednesday, Muilenburg said that Boeing is “working on both the ecosystem – the regulatory framework

Space News reports that during a press conference Monday at the 69th International Astronautical Congress, representatives of the ESA, JAXA, and Roscosmos “said they were open to extending the station’s operations to 2028 or 2030 in order to maximize the investment they’ve made in the facility as a platform for research and preparation for exploration activities

The Space Review reports that NASA celebrated its 60th anniversary “with a variety of largely virtual events, including a recorded statement from NASA’s current administrator, Jim Bridenstine.” A recent panel at AIAA’s SPACE Forum featured six of the agency’s administrators, and “offered an opportunity to reflect how NASA has changed or sometimes hasn’t changed” over the

Flying Magazine reports that the FAA announced last week that UAVs interfering with wildfire containment crews, law enforcement efforts, or other first responders “are now more likely to face serious civil penalties, even for first-time offenses.” The action is “separate from new provisions included within the FAA Reauthorization legislation that would allow authorities to track, intercept

SPACE reports that a small, Japanese re-entry capsule, “designed to bring back experiments from space, is gearing up for its first test flight” after arriving at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday aboard a robotic cargo ship. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV Small Re-Entry Capsule (HSRC) is designed to transport experiment samples back to

Bloomberg News reports that during the Farnborough Airshow, Rolls-Royce demonstrated an “array of miniature robots designed to speed up engine overhauls by removing the need for powerplants to be detached from the aircraft during shop visits.” The swarming robots, less than half an inch across, are designed to “roam the turbine in gangs beaming pictures back

The Waitsburg Times reports that at last week’s AIAA SPACE Forum, The Boeing Company “revealed its proposed hypersonic passenger airliner, which would fly much higher and faster than the Concorde.” Boeing envisions the aircraft traveling at Mach 5, “enabling them to cross the Atlantic Ocean in just two hours and the Pacific in three while cruising at

MRO Network reports that the shift toward electric propulsion is “reshaping not only the supply chain, but also the aftermarket.” Although it is “still too early to predict the extent to which electric propulsion will change aviation,” the new technology “looks most likely to reshape the light-aircraft sector, and the promise of lower energy costs, emissions

CNN reports that the US Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning may fly its “first combat mission within days, according to several US defense officials, who told CNN that the fifth-generation aircraft are currently aboard the USS Essex amphibious assault ship and should soon be in a position to conduct airstrikes over Afghanistan.” The Essex has already sailed

Florida Today reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk elaborated on the company’s plans to establish a colony on the surface of Mars in a series of recent tweets. Expanding on earlier details for the Big Falcon Rocket’s planned Mars mission, Musk “said the latest roadmap shows that a red planet base could be established as soon

Space News reports that NASA hopes to launch the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) of the agency’s planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in 2022, “most likely from Cape Canaveral.” The payload will be sent into cislunar space. The component’s “boxy shape and folded-up solar arrays will make it resemble many of the commercial communications satellites launched from

Reuters reported that Russia may abandon plans to help build the Deep Space Gateway with NASA because Moscow, according to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, does not want to play a “second fiddle role.” Russia had agreed last year to partner with the US on plans for the space station, but speaking to Russian television, Rogozin “said

FlightGlobal reported that Airbus Helicopters is preparing for “serial production” of door components for its AS350 helicopter using additive manufacturing techniques. The company’s Donauwörth, Germany facility is in the “process of qualifying the production of titanium door latch shafts for the long-haul aircraft through additive layer manufacturing, with serial production scheduled to start in early 2019.”

Following his keynote address at the AIAA SPACE Forum, Aerospace America interviewed NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who “said the Trump administration’s goal of landing Americans on the surface of the moon and someday Mars will require companies and international partners.” According to Bridenstine, “we want to do more than even our growing budget can handle,” and as

Space News reports that although The Boeing Company and SpaceX have “been struggling to meet safety thresholds established by NASA for commercial crew vehicles,” executives from both companies speaking at the AIAA SPACE Forum “said they now believed their vehicles met that and related safety requirements.” Boeing Vice President and Commercial Crew Program Manager John Mulholland

ExecutiveGov reports that the FAA has activated the “final component of its nationwide system designed to authorize and track drones in real time.” The North Central region of Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) is now operational, “completing the activation of all six components that collectively cover 288 air traffic control stations.” LAANC supports the

Airforce Technology reports that the US Air Force “successfully completed the first automated landing and take-off” of an MQ-9 Block 5 UAV. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) is testing automatic take-off and landing capability that will increase the UAV’s suitability for Air Force missions. Development of the MQ-9’s automatic take-off and landing capability is expected to

Reuters reports that the US and Japan successfully tested Japan’s “Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system off the coast of Hawaii on Tuesday.” During the test, a “simple, separating ballistic missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii, was intercepted above the Pacific by an upgraded standard missile 3.” According to

Reuters reported that “Boeing Co’s South Carolina plant, where it assembles 787 wide-body jetliners, was set to reopen operations on Sunday night following a lifting of evacuation orders for coastal areas threatened by deadly storm Florence, a Boeing spokesperson said on Sunday.” Boeing “had suspended operations at the North Charleston plant on Tuesday and flown several

Reuters (9/16) reported that “Boeing Co’s South Carolina plant, where it assembles 787 wide-body jetliners, was set to reopen operations on Sunday night following a lifting of evacuation orders for coastal areas threatened by deadly storm Florence, a Boeing spokesperson said on Sunday.” Boeing “had suspended operations at the North Charleston plant on Tuesday and flown

The AP reported on the use of UAVs in emergency situations, saying many local EMS, firefighting departments, and others have purchased UAS as a new tool for disaster response. The AP explained that “what was once viewed as a toy has turned out to be useful in a variety of industries, from emergency agencies to real estate

ExecutiveBiz reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) has begun preparations for Saturday’s planned launch of a “Northrop Grumman-built spacecraft via the Delta II 7420-10, marking the rocket’s last launch into space.” NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will “monitor the changes in the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica” in order to help scientists

SPACE reports that a test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully landed Wednesday “under three parachutes, completing the final parachute test to get the vehicle ready for a journey around the moon and back.” Although the data will not be fully analyzed for several weeks, “early indications are that the test was a success.” During the

SPACE reports that NASA’s asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began studying the Bennu near-Earth asteroid Monday, according to an announcement by mission team members. According to a tweet by OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, the spacecraft’s team planned to “start our first science observations…searching for dust plumes around Bennu.” NASA officials plan to use data collected about Bennu’s

Space News reports that SpaceX ended a “rare extended gap in launch activity Sept. 10 with the successful launch of a communications satellite for Telesat,” SpaceX’s second launch for the operator in less than two months and the company’s 16th of the year. SpaceX’s launch schedule for the remainder of the year “is backloaded, with only

Reuters reports that the US military and European operators of the F-35 have “agreed to work together more closely to help lower the cost of operating the new warplanes as growing numbers arrive in Europe.” Operating costs were a central issue raised during last week’s meeting of senior US military officials with representatives from Israel and

The AP reported that NASA plans to test new technology designed to “protect spacecraft from heat and pressure when entering a planet’s atmosphere.” NASA announced Friday that the heat shield will be installed aboard a rocket to be launched Wednesday by UP Aerospace from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Once the rocket “reaches space, the umbrella-like shield will

Aviation Today reported on a panel discussing “cutting-edge technologies” at the “Air Traffic Control Association’s annual Blue Skies event on Thursday.” Speakers including NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategy Robert Pearce discussed supersonic and hypersonic technology and artificial intelligence research. According to Pearce, “Hypersonics, for commercial applications, we’re still a couple decades away.” He added that

Space News reports that Effective Space and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced a partnership Tuesday on Effective’s planned satellite servicing system. Under the agreement, IAI will “serve as the prime contractor for Effective Space’s Space Drone servicing vehicle, which is intended to provide satellite life extension services,” and also will help finance development. More Info (Space News)

Aviation International News reports that in his keynote address at the InterDrone conference in Las Vegas, Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell forecast that UAVs will “do for aviation what the internet did for information,” and called upon the industry to work with the FAA on their integration into national airspace. Elwell charged industry leaders to make