Flying Magazine reports, “President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to usher in a new generation of drones, self-flying planes, and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis while shutting out “unfair foreign competition” from countries like China. The order, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” contains a package of measures designed to bolster the U.S. drone industry by lifting restrictions and streamlining manufacturing, testing, and access for American-built uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS).”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Tag: engineering
SpaceX Launches 70th Falcon 9 Mission of the Year
SPACE reports SpaceX launched 26 Starlink satellites to orbit from California on Sunday (June 8), on the 70th mission of 2025 for the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. “Fifty-two of those flights have been devoted to building out the Starlink megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO), the biggest satellite network ever assembled.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Video
SpaceX launches 70th Falcon 9 mission of 2025 from California, June 8, 2025 (Launch at 10:15 mark)
(Space Affairs; YouTube)
U.S. Navy’s T-54A Trainer Achieves IOC
Aviation Week reports, “The U.S. Navy’s new multi-engine trainer reached initial operational capability (IOC) in May, the service announced June 9. The Textron T-54A Merlin II is replacing the aging T-44C Pegasus to provide Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and allied training for multi-engine platforms such as the P-8A, E-2D and C-130. The service has received 15 of the aircraft so far, with plans to buy up to 64 with deliveries running through 2026. The T-54A is a modified King Air 260.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Trump Orders FAA to Repeal Ban on Overland Supersonic Flight
Flying Magazine reports, “President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order instructing the FAA to repeal its ban on supersonic flight over U.S. land. The order said that, with advances in noise-reduction technology, supersonic flight is ‘not just possible, but safe, sustainable, and commercially viable.’ New noise standards will be developed that weigh ‘community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility,’ the White House added.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Amazon’s Second Batch of Kuiper Internet Satellites Targeted for June 13 Launch on Atlas V
SPACE reports, “Amazon’s second fleet of internet satellites now has a target launch date. The stack of 27 satellites, part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket next Friday (June 13). Liftoff of the mission, known as Kuiper 2, is set for 2:29 p.m. EDT (1829 GMT), from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, ULA announced.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Commercial Space Companies to Perform Launch Range Upgrades
Space News reports, “The U.S. Space Force awarded Jacobs Technology a contract worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide engineering and technical services at the nation’s primary space launch ranges, as the military seeks to modernize aging infrastructure and boost capacity amid a surge in commercial space activity. The Space Systems Command selected the Tullahoma, Tennessee-based contractor on May 31 for the so-called ‘Space Force Range Contract,’ which covers maintenance, sustainment, systems engineering and integration services for the Eastern and Western ranges until 2035.”
Full Story (Space News)
Archer Aviation Performing Piloted Flights of its Midnight Electric Aircraft
Electrek reports, “All-electric aircraft developer Archer has entered a key development phase ahead of full-fledged flight certification and commercial operations. Last week, Archer completed a piloted flight in its flagship Midnight aircraft, demonstrating a conventional takeoff and landing instead of vertical (it can do both). Check out the entire flight video.”
Full Story (Electrek)
Resilience Lunar Lander to Attempt ‘Sea of Cold’ Moon Landing This Week
SPACE reports, “The Japanese company ispace is poised to make a historic moon landing this week. The company’s Resilience lunar lander will attempt to touch down in Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”), a basalt plain in the moon’s northern hemisphere, on Thursday (June 5) at 3:24 p.m. EDT (1924 GMT). You’ll be able to watch the landing attempt online via a live webcast on ispace’s YouTube page, beginning about one hour before landing.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Trailblazing STEM Educator Amy Medina Jorge Completes Spaceflight on Blue Origin’s NS-32 Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2025 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) issued the following statement from AIAA CEO Clay Mowry:
“Congratulations to Amy Medina Jorge on her journey beyond the Kármán line! We are thrilled to see such a remarkable educator-astronaut make the journey of a lifetime as part of Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-32 mission. Amy is one of those teachers who literally goes above and beyond to inspire the next generation of explorers and innovators.
We were honored to recognize Amy in 2023 with the Trailblazing STEM Educator Award in partnership with Challenger Center. Amy stood out due to her tireless work every day to empower students in STEM – especially those who are traditionally underserved and underrepresented. She’s given her students the chance to participate in real space experiences, leading more than 60 space experiments including developing and flying biometric sensors and performing in-flight 3D printing on a parabolic zero-gravity flight.
As a middle and high school teacher at Odyssey Academy Galveston, in Galveston, Texas, Amy is also an AIAA Educator Associate Member. Teachers like Amy are invaluable – not only to their local communities but to the space community as a whole.
Amy’s lessons are launchpads for her students’ dreams, giving them every opportunity to see their potential. Certainly, her students’ dreams were onboard with her today. What an inspiration!
AIAA applauds Blue Origin on continuing to open up access to space to more people, totaling nearly 60 commercial astronauts so far. We salute the countless aerospace professionals whose expertise has brought the New Shepard fully reusable, suborbital rocket system to this point. Reusability is the future of launch.”
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. Visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Advanced Air Mobility, AI Crucial Topics Planned for 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum
By Jeremy Wang, Co-founder and COO, Ribbit
The AIAA AVIATION Forum is the venue to tackle both longstanding challenges from detect-and-avoid – to emerging trends like how we’re dealing with decarbonization – combined with autonomy and sustainability coming together on the same platforms.
The event is regarded as the forefront of aviation business, research, development, and technology. This year’s theme, “Navigating the Future: Sustainability, Safety, and Innovation.” I am particularly excited that the program we’ve designed promises to deliver insights about the future of advanced air mobility (AAM) and autonomy.
We expect over 2,500 aviation professionals from academia, industry and government to attend the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum on 21–25 July in Las Vegas.
Convergence of Autonomy and Sustainability
An example of convergence is Joby Aviation’s landmark emission-free hydrogen-electric flight last summer that demonstrated the potential for emissions-free regional travel. The air taxi featured a hydrogen-based power plant on board.
There’s talk about hybrid electric being incorporated into some of the newer eVTOL aircraft concepts to try and address the range challenges of pure battery systems.
Must-see Sessions
The Forum’s opening plenary and Forum 360 will give us a glimpse into the aviation industry in 2050. Our opening speakers will share their insights that will define aviation in the next three decades.
“Injecting intelligence,” or bringing together autonomy, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning into platforms, will serve as one of the daylong themes of the conference.
The world is entering a state of increased tension between longstanding adversaries and democratic countries. That’s spurring a lot of pressure for us to innovate more quickly and to onboard new capabilities sooner than we ever have in the past. Three of the Forums 360 panel discussions will cover some of the biggest challenges and opportunities. One will cover U.S. collaborative combat aircraft developments, featuring the director of the U.S. Air Force’s 40th Test Flight Squadron from Eglin Air Force Base and the deputy director of Data & Analytics Enablement for National Defense Canada.
A key theme with autonomy is the concept of affordable mass, a strategy for developing and deploying low-cost weapon systems and aircraft to counter high-volume adversary capabilities.
There is a huge capability gap between the large Predator and Reaper UAS and the tiny drones used in defense. In this “Goldilocks zone,” aircraft can be scaled to better address the threats from integrated air defense systems.
Autonomy is going to be pretty critical to operating in the kind of environment we’re now seeing in Eastern Europe and increasingly over the Indo Pacific and possibly the Arctic.
We also will be exploring the role of AI and new types of sensors in these autonomous systems and how they should be certified, as well as concepts of human machine teaming and human autonomy teaming.
Finally, the “AI Certification: Busting the Myth” session will address the most prevalent misconceptions about AI technologies in aviation, ranging from “AI will one day directly control aircraft” to “AI systems are not safe.” The speakers will ground the talk in conceptual, scientific evidence and practical, operational experience.
To hear from dozens of expert speakers and join us in the conversation, register now for 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 21–25 July, Las Vegas.
About the Author
Jeremy Wang, a third-year member of the AIAA AVIATION Forum’s Guiding Coalition, is the co-founder and COO of Ribbit, a venture-backed startup developing dual-use autonomous aircraft to serve rural, coastal, and remote regions. Ribbit is credited with the first fully automated gate-to-gate flight in Canada and serving federal contracts delivering advanced autonomy for air and joint operations. Prior to Ribbit, Wang was the CTO of Canada’s top-ranked commercial drone operator where he oversaw the development of special-purpose drones for industrial and defense applications.
Register now for AIAA AVIATION Forum
The 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum is your direct flight to the forefront of aviation business, research, development, and technology. Registration is now open.
Register for the event here and save before the 23 June Early Bird deadline.