As NASA counts down to the Artemis II launch, AIAA is pleased to release the most recent technical content published on the Artemis program from the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets and meeting papers at AIAA SciTech Forum (2024–2026). These original research results and technological progress on Artemis have been published in AIAA’s Aerospace Research Central (ARC). The Artemis II collection is complimentary this year as we celebrate the Artemis II mission.
Tag: Astronautics
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
Call for Content Now Open for AIAA SciTech Forum
FROM THE INSTITUTE
The Institute is requesting technical paper abstracts and session proposals for AIAA SciTech Forum 2027. Share your ideas and contribute to shaping the 2027 forum program. Deadline: 21 May 2026.
ASCEND 2026 Will Showcase the Space Industry’s Most Influential Voices
FROM THE INSTITUTE
More than 200 luminaries from across the civil, commercial, and national security space sectors, adjacent industries, and the next-generation workforce will take the ASCEND stage, 19–21 May, in Washington, D.C. They will address the most important opportunities and mission-critical challenges at this pivotal time for the space community. Registration for ASCEND 2026 is open now, with early-bird rates available until 20 April.
Full Story
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)
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)
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)
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)
NASA’s Juno Delivers New Science While Its Future Remains Uncertain
Ars Technica reports, “Jupiter’s colossal storms generate lightning flashes at least 100 times more powerful than those on Earth, according to scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The findings were published March 20 in the journal AGU Advances. Researchers used data recorded by Juno in 2021 and 2022, after NASA granted an extension to the spacecraft’s operations upon completing a five-year science campaign at Jupiter. Juno remains in good health, but NASA officials have not said if they will approve another extension for the mission.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)