Tag: Aerospace News

Falcon 9 Launches 119 Payloads into Orbit on Transporter-16 Mission

Via Satellite reports, “SpaceX launched 119 payloads into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) at 4:02 a.m. PT on Transporter-16, a dedicated smallsat rideshare mission, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday morning. The mission was the first stage booster’s 12thflight. It landed vertically on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean after releasing its payloads.”
Full Story (Via Satellite)

Video

SpaceX launches 119 payloads on Transporter-16 mission. (Launch occurs at the 0:10 mark)
VideoFromSpace; YouTube

NASA Advances X-59 Testing After Resolving Cockpit Alert Issue

Aviation Week reports, “The cockpit warning light that cut short the second flight of NASA’s X-59 low-boom supersonic flight demonstrator on March 20 proved to be a false positive and the aircraft resumed envelope expansion testing with back-to-back flights on March 26 and 27. The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-built X-59 was forced to return to base at Edwards AFB, California, after only 9 min. of a planned hour-long flight on March 20 when NASA Test Pilot Jim Less saw a vehicle system warning in the cockpit.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

NASA Says Artemis II on Track for April 1 Launch

Space News reports, “While the Artemis 2 mission is primarily a test flight, the four astronauts on board will conduct some science during the nearly 10-day mission. ‘Science wasn’t in the driver’s seat to define what Artemis 2 is,’ said Jacob Richardson, deputy lead of Artemis 2 lunar science at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, during a panel discussion at the Goddard Space System Symposium March 12. ‘Instead, we are using Artemis 2 as an opportunity to get science to prepare for our later Artemis missions when science is more of a driver.’”
Full Story (Space News – Subscription Publication)

NetJets Receives First Ultra-Long-Range Global 8000 Jet

Flying Magazine reports, “The world’s largest private jet operator this week added the world’s fastest business jet to its fleet as premium travel inches toward a return to supersonic speeds. NetJets on Thursday took delivery of its first ultra-long-range Bombardier Global 8000 at the manufacturer’s Laurent Beaudoin Completion Centre in Dorval, Quebec. NetJets plans to build a 24-strong fleet of the aircraft, which received Transport Canada and FAA certification in late 2025. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) followed suit in January.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

Space Force Considers Boosting Wallops Launch Cadence to Meet Commercial Demand

Defense Daily reports, “While the Space Force has used NASA’s site at Wallops Island, Va., to launch niche missions, including small-satellite orbital and sounding rocket hypersonic suborbital launches, the service may need to ensure that it is able to ramp up launches there significantly, the head of U.S. Space Command said on Thursday. Wallops “has been an amazing story over the last decade,” Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting told a Senate Armed Services Committee.”
Full Story (Defense Daily – Subscription Publication)

U.S. Navy Finalizes Requirements for T-45 Replacement Trainer

Aviation Week reports, “The U.S. Navy has set an aggressive timeline and cost goal for its next-generation trainer, and will keep its plan to no longer require carrier-representative unflared landings to meet it. The service on March 26 released its final request for proposals (RFP) for the Undergraduate Jet Training System to replace its aging T-45 Goshawk fleet.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

MBDA Plans $5.8B Investment, 2,800 Hires as Missile Demand Soars

Breaking Defense reports, “European missile giant MBDA plans hire 2,800 new workers and invest €5 billion ($5.8 billion) over the next five years to increase weapons production, CEO Eric Béranger said on Thursday. In comments that often sounded like a victory lap, Béranger stated that ‘MBDA has attained an unprecedented strategic dimension as one of the instrumental pillars of rearmament in Europe,’ a claim he based off of three key figures: that MBDA’s 2025 revenues amounted to €5.8 billion ($6.7 billion), that the order intake was €13.2 billion ($15.2 billion) of which 70 percent came from European customers, and the order backlog was worth €44.4 billion ($51.3 billion).”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)

Space Force Adjusts Mission Schedule Amid Vulcan Uncertainty

Space News reports, “U.S. Space Force officials are working to reshuffle launch plans for a slate of national security missions after United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket was sidelined by a booster anomaly that could take months to resolve. At a March 25 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee, lawmakers pressed Pentagon officials on the fallout from the Feb. 12 launch issue, with Chairman Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R., Tenn.) pointing to what “will probably be at least a six month delay to any Vulcan launch.”
Full Story (Space News)

U.S. House Advances Legislation to Lift Ban on Supersonic Travel Over Land

Aerotime reports, “The US House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at opening the skies to civil supersonic flight over land, a step supporters say could usher in a new era of air travel in the United States. The bill would require the FAA to revise its rules within a year to allow civil aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over land without special authorization, provided no sonic boom reaches the ground. The measure, H.R. 3410, targets a long-standing FAA ban dating to 1973, when regulators barred overland civil supersonic flight because of noise concerns tied to sonic booms.”
Full Story (Aerotime)

Skyfall Mission Targets 2028 to Bring Aerial Exploration to Mars

SPACE reports, “Skyfall is happening, and it will get to Mars in a totally new way. Last summer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Virginia company AeroVironment unveiled their Skyfall mission concept, which would send a fleet of tiny helicopters to explore the skies of Mars.”
Full Story (SPACE)



Video

Skyfall – Future Mission Concept for Next-gen Mars Helicopters and Exploration
(Aerovironment; YouTube)