Tag: 2025

AIAA Statement on Blue Origin’s Successful NS-29 Mission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 4, 2025 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) issued the following statement from AIAA CEO Clay Mowry:

“On behalf of the 30,000 professional and student members of AIAA, we congratulate Blue Origin on its successful NS-29 mission. The rocket included 30 payloads that experienced two minutes of lunar gravity forces. We look forward to learning the results of these experiments to help us prepare for more activities on the lunar surface in the future.”

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Video

New Shepard Mission NS-29 Webcast
(Blue Origin; YouTube)

Composites World Article: Expanding Your Horizons at New Industry Events

Composites World Editor-in-Chief Scott Frances reports, “Manufacturing in general offers a multitude of trade shows — and the composites sector in particular has its fair share. For many of us, there are always those few events that we know well having attended them often.”
Full Story (Composites World – Subscription Publication)

Japan’s H3 Rocket Launches Michibiki 6 Navigation Satellite

Space News reports, “Japan’s flagship H3 rocket successfully launched the Michibiki 6 navigation satellite early Sunday, enhancing the country’s regional GPS capabilities. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H3 rocket lifted off at 3:30 a.m. Eastern (0830 UTC) Feb. 2 from Tanegashima Space Center. Aboard was the 1,900-kilogram Michibiki 6 satellite, also known as the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-6), for Japan’s navigation satellite system.”
Full Story (Space News)

Video

Japan’s flagship H3 rocket launches Michibiki 6 aboard H3-22S (Launch at 0:45:57 mark)
(The Launch Pad; YouTube)

Supply Chain and Labor Challenges Continue in High-Demand Commercial Market Forecast

Aviation Week reports, “Demand is surging across commercial aviation even as an imbalance persists between supply and demand, according to the Aviation Week Network 2025 Commercial Fleet & MRO Forecast presented at the Aero Engines Americas conference on Jan. 28. Hamstrung by supply chain and labor challenges, deliveries by major aircraft OEMs in the fourth quarter of 2024 were down 17% over 2023 and 20% over 2019. Overall, in 2024, deliveries in 2024 fell 10% on an annual basis.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

SpaceX and Vast Issue RFP for Science Experiments on Crew Dragon and Haven-1 Space Station

SPACE reports, “Vast Space is scheduled to launch the Haven-1 space station to orbit this August. The single-module station will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, to be followed in short order by the launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon that will ferry a small number of astronauts to temporarily inhabit that station. Now, SpaceX and Vast have issued a joint request for proposals on just what to do onboard once Haven-1 is in low-Earth orbit (LEO).”
Full Story (SPACE)

Army Black Hawk Helicopter and Airliner Collide Over Potomac River

Defense One reports, “A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, collided with a passenger aircraft preparing to land at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening shortly before 9 p.m. The helicopter was carrying three service members … when it crashed into the passenger jet with 64 people aboard.”
Full Story (Defense One)

NASA’s Two Stuck Astronauts Perform Their First Spacewalk Together

AP News reports, “NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in. Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents.”
Full Story (AP News)

U.S. Space Force Forecasts 25% Increase in Launches in Next Two Years

Aviation Week reports, “The U.S. Space Force anticipates launches from its two continental spaceports to increase by 25% to 30% over the next couple of years, continuing a trend as greater numbers of military, civil and commercial payloads are being sent into space. The service has supported a steady growth in its launch cadence and does not see it slowing down in the near future.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Boom’s XB-1 Achieves Supersonic Flight Milestone

Aviation Week reports, “High-speed airliner developer Boom took a major leap toward the development of its Mach 1.7 Overture transport with the successful supersonic flight of its XB-1 demonstrator, the first independently developed faster-than-sound aircraft. The XB-1, flown by Boom Chief Test Pilot Tristan ‘Geppetto’ Brandenburg, exceeded Mach 1 on three separate occasions during its 12th test flight on Jan. 28, hitting a top speed of Mach 1.12 at around 11 min. 30 sec. into the flight. The aircraft accelerated through the transonic regime while flying at 34,000 ft. in the Mojave Desert’s Black Mountain supersonic corridor within the area’s restricted R-2508 test airspace complex.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
More Info (AIAA Statement)

Airbus Pauses CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL Program

Aerotime reports, “Airbus announced on January 27, 2025, that it is pausing the development of its CityAirbus NextGen electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft … Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters, highlighted the uncertainty over the capabilities of the current generation of batteries as the key reason for the suspension of this program.”
Full Story (Aerotime)