Tag: engineering

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.

300x100To 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.

Hermeus Quarterhorse Demonstrator Makes First Flight

Aviation Week reports, “High-speed aircraft developer Hermeus has successfully flown its remotely piloted Quarterhorse Mk. 1 demonstrator at Edwards AFB, California, marking a key step toward the follow-on development of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles. The short flight, which Hermeus describes as a simple “hop,” was achieved after the aircraft completed two high-speed taxi tests earlier on May 21. After takeoff the aircraft climbed briefly to low altitude before making a straight-ahead landing on the base’s 6.2-mi.-long dry lakebed Runway 15/33.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Physicists Record Rocket Launches for Acoustic Insights

The New York Times reports that physicists who record rocket launches and landings are learning important facts about the acoustics of spaceflight. “Rocket launches are loud, and big rockets are louder. Launches used to be occasional spectacles, and not many people minded the noise. But the pace has quickened. SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk, now sends a Falcon 9 rocket to space at least once every few days from launchpads in Florida and California. Other companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, also have ambitions to send rockets to space at an accelerating pace.”
Full Story (New York Times – Subscription Publication)

SpaceX Says Engine Hardware Failure Caused Starship Flight 8 Mishap

Space News reports, “The failure of SpaceX’s Starship on its most recent test flight had a different root cause than the previous failure, despite happening at about the same time. SpaceX released details May 23 about the cause of the Flight 8 mishap that took place March 6, when several Raptor engines on the Starship upper stage shut down and the vehicle started to tumble.”
Full Story (Space News)

 

 

 

 

Video

SpaceX Starship launches on flight 8, catches booster but loses ship again (Launch at 00:25:35 mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)

Japan’s Skymark Airlines to Purchase Six 737 Max 8s

Flight Global reports, “Skymark Airlines is to acquire six Boeing 737 Max 8s, in an orderbook top-up for fleet renewal purposes. The deal, which was approved by the Japanese carrier’s board on 22 May, is valued at Y143.4 billion ($997 million) at list prices, and includes the purchase of CFM International engines.”
Full Story (Flight Global)

Boeing Increases 737 MAX Production Rate

Reuters reports, “Boeing expects to stabilize 737 MAX production at 38 airplanes a month over the next couple of months, its Commercial Airplanes Vice President of Quality Doug Ackerman told reporters on Tuesday. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration capped output at 38 airplanes a month after a mid-air panel blowout in a nearly new 737 in January 2024.”
Full Story (Reuters)

 

Scientists Discover New Microbe on China’s Tiangong Space Station

SPACE reports, “Scientists have discovered a previously unknown strain of microbe after analyzing samples taken from China’s Tiangong space station. The new microbe strain, officially named Niallia tiangongensis, was found in microbial samples collected from the surfaces of Tiangong during the Shenzhou 15 crewed mission, which returned to Earth in June 2023.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Boeing Resumes KC-46 Deliveries to U.S. Air Force After Fixing Cracks

Air & Space Forces Magazine reports, “Deliveries of Boeing’s KC-46A Pegasus tanker to the U.S. Air Force have restarted following a roughly three-month pause imposed after cracks were found in at least two brand-new aircraft. The Air Force and Boeing said the issue was not a safety-of-flight concern, but the problem was only the latest in a series that have plagued the 767-derivative, which has suffered through quality issues, delays, and cost overruns dating back years.”
Full Story (Air & Space Forces Magazine)