Aerospace America

The April-June 2026 issue of Aerospace America is now live.  Don’t miss the cover story, “The New Space Race” by Leonard David and Aerospace America Associate Editor Cat Hofacker. The U.S. is once again trying to beat another nation to landing astronauts on the moon, and NASA officials and U.S. lawmakers say the stakes are even higher than they were in the 1960s. David and Hofacker explore the implications of this 21st century space race. Full Story

In “Rocket Lab’s Next Step,” Jonathan O’Callaghan takes a look at Rocket Lab’s reusable Neutron medium-lift rocket. The company is positioning its reusable Neutron medium-lift rocket as an alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, particularly for the coming wave of satellite constellations. O’Callaghan examines how Neutron stacks up and the road to launch. Full Story

In “Building A Global Community,” AIAA CEO Clay Mowry writes, “In January this year I spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of over 120 aerospace engineering students at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, organized by AIAA’s vibrant student branch there. We ran out of pizza and went over time, but we left energized about the bright future that lies ahead in aerospace.” Full Story

In Editor’s Notebook, “Expanding Our Coverage of Defense and Congress,” Aerospace America Editor-in-Chief Marjorie Censer writes, “The Aerospace America staff grew in January, when we welcomed a second staff reporter: Aspen Pflughoeft. Aspen joined us from McClatchy, where she spent nearly four years. She led the company’s international and science coverage for its real-time news team, which means she has a knack for covering and writing about complex news.” Full Story

In R&D, “With Dragonfly Mission, NASA Faces Challenges Great and Small,” Aerospace America Staff Reporter Paul Brinkmann writes, “NASA has sent dozens of spacecraft to distant interplanetary bodies over the decades, but none quite like the Saturnian moon that the car-sized Dragonfly octocopter is slated to land on and explore in the 2030s.” Full Story

Also, get the April-June 2026 crossword answers here.

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