Tag: engineering

Japanese Successfully Launches Lunar Landing, Space Telescope Mission

The Washington Post reports Japan launched a “lunar mission on Thursday, overcoming multiple failures and delays to become the fifth country to head to the moon just weeks after India in a global race to better understand the Earth’s closest neighbor.” The Japanese H2-A rocket is scheduled “to enter the moon’s orbit in three to four months and land early next year,” and carries “two space missions: a new X-ray telescope and a lightweight high-precision moon lander that will serve as the basis for future moon landing technology.” The reputation of “Japan’s space program was on the line with the launch on Thursday,” and Japan’s performance is described as “important for its national security strategy in space, developed with an eye on advancements by China and Russia.”
Full Story (Washington Post)

 

Video

Japan Lunar Lander SLIM + XRISM Launch, September 6, 2023
(The Launch Pad; YouTube)

USMC to Conduct Safety Review Following MV-22 Crash

Aviation Week reports that the new acting head of the US Marine Corps “will elevate the head of safety role to a general officer by next summer as the service conducts a review of its operations with a long-term look to improving its overall focus on safety.” The announcement “comes after a Bell Boeing MV-22 crash.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

China’s Ceres-1 Rocket Achieves Orbit with First Launch from Mobile Sea Platform

Space News  reports that China’s Galactic Energy “conducted its first sea launch early Wednesday, also marking a ninth successive successful launch for the commercial company.” The Ceres-1 solid rocket “lifted off from a transport erector launcher on a mobile sea platform off the coast of Haiyang, Shandong province, at 5:34 a.m. Eastern (0934 UTC) Sept. 5.” Aboard were four satellites “for Guodian Gaoke, a commercial firm constructing its Tianqi low-Earth orbit narrow-band Internet of Things constellation.” The launch “carried Tianqi satellites 21-24, with the spacecraft targeting an 800-kilometer-altitude orbit.” The satellites are “equipped with chemical propulsion systems allowing orbital maneuvers. Guodian Gaoke has 21 satellites in orbit and aims to complete the 38-satellite constellation in 2024.”
Full Story (Space News – Subscription Publication)

 

Video

First sea launch of China’s commercial CERES-1 rocket, August 2, 2023
(CGTN; YouTube)

Aircraft Manufacturers Prepare for Uncrewed Future

Politico reports that every commercial flight “has two pilots at the controls – but some planemakers are now designing cockpits that need fewer pilots, or someday even none.” So far, their airline customers “have been quiet on the issue, but pilots’ unions across the globe are getting louder, saying any fewer than two pilots is dangerous.” The idea “is most active in Europe, where French manufacturers Airbus and Dassault are pushing for regulators to allow passenger planes to operate with only one pilot in the cockpit for the majority of a long-haul flight.” European Cockpit Association President and KLM Captain Otjan de Bruijn said, “It’s a commercially-driven initiative with enormous risks for passengers, for pilots, and for cabin crew.” At present, this is theoretical, but manufacturers “are actively developing and testing a host of autonomous flight projects, including for commercial uses.” And EASA, the European Union’s aviation regulator, “is considering a concept that would have two pilots in the cockpit only for take-off and landing.” For the rest of the flight, the second pilot “would rest outside the cockpit, swapping shifts mid-way through a long-haul flight.” EASA is “expected to sign off on this by 2027.” A FAA official “said the agency is not considering any of the proposals that EASA is weighing.”
Full Story (Politico)

SpaceX Launches 13 Satellites for US Space Development Agency

Space News reported SpaceX on Saturday launched a Falcon 9 rocket “at 7:25 a.m. Pacific from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, carrying 13 U.S. military satellites.” According to Space News, “The mission to low Earth orbit was the second launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mesh network of military communications and missile tracking satellites.” Spaceflight Now reported the launch was the third attempt “in as many days for the mission,” as “a problem with the Falcon 9’s engine 4 scrubbed the launch on Aug. 31 and on Sept. 1 the countdown was halted with 20 minutes left on the clock by a balky valve in a ground system.”
Full Story (Space News)

 

Video

Space Development Agency’s Second Tranche 0 Mission, September 2, 2023
(SpaceX; YouTube)

AIAA Announces 2023 Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 5, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation has announced the 24 winners of its 2023 undergraduate scholarships and graduate awards. Through its Foundation and supported by nearly 30,000 members, AIAA annually awards over $100,000 in academic scholarships and STEM educational grants to support the next generation of aerospace professionals.

“Congratulations to these exemplary students on receiving scholarships and awards to further their education. Preparing the next generation of aerospace innovators is part of our commitment to the aerospace community,” said Basil Hassan, chair, AIAA Foundation. “The students recognized here are some of our industry’s next leaders and problem-solvers. We are proud to call them AIAA student members and we look forward to seeing how they shape the future of aerospace.”

Applications for the 2024 scholarships and graduate awards are being accepted from 1 October to 31 January. Please visit the AIAA Foundation’s Scholarship and Graduate Awards website for more information.

The 2023 undergraduate scholarship winners are:

    • The AIAA Foundation, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is pleased to present the AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship to two students. The $10,000 AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship is a needs-based scholarship presented to one female high school graduate and one university-enrolled female student each year.
    • Anna Maria Zueva, accepted to Columbia University (New York, NY)
    • Priya Abiram, currently enrolled at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
    • Two $10,000 Daedalus 88 Scholarships, endowed by former AIAA President John Langford, founder and CEO Emeritus of Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, and founder and CEO of Electra.aero, were presented this year.
    • Lucas Pabarcius, California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California)
    • Jammal Yarbrough, College of the Canyons (Santa Clarita, California).
    • The $10,000 David and Catherine Thompson Space Technology Scholarship, named for and endowed by former AIAA President David Thompson, retired chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Orbital ATK, Dulles, Virginia, and his wife Catherine, was presented to Noah McAllister, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey).
    • The $5,000 Vicki and George Muellner Scholarship for Aerospace Engineering, named for and endowed by the late Lt. Gen. George Muellner, U.S. Air Force, former AIAA president and president of advanced systems for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, and his wife Vicki, was presented to Nikolai Baranov, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana).
    • The $5,000 Wernher von Braun Scholarship, named in honor of the German rocketeer and founder of the U.S. space program, was presented to Ashish Cavale, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia).
  • The $1,250 Leatrice Gregory Pendray Scholarship, named in honor of Mrs. Leatrice Pendray, an accomplished rocketry researcher and co-founder of the American Interplanetary Society in 1930, was presented to Shruti Jadhav, University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina).

Three AIAA Foundation scholarships were presented by AIAA technical committees (TC) to students performing research in the TC’s area:

  • The Space Transportation TC presented a $1,500 scholarship to Nelson Pixley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Blacksburg, Virginia).

The Digital Avionics TC presented five scholarships of $3,000 each:

    • The Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Quintan Ajluni, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana).
    • The Dr. Amy R. Pritchett Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Vikas Patel, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Daytona Beach (Daytona Beach, Florida).
    • The Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Ethan Traub, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia).
    • The Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Hampton Wohlford, Virginia Military Institute (Lexington, Virginia).
  • The Denise Ponchak Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Sashwat Suman, Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

The 2023 graduate award winners are:

    • Michaela Hemming, University of Alabama in Huntsville (Huntsville, Alabama), received the Neil Armstrong Graduate Award. This $5,000 award honors the character and achievements of the late astronaut, military pilot, and educator, Neil A. Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon.
    • Rutledge Fogel and Shaan Stephen, both from North Carolina State University (NCSU), are the recipients of the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award in Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Hassan established the award shortly before his death in January 2019 to entice top NCSU aerospace engineering seniors, who also are AIAA members, to earn their graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in aerospace engineering at NCSU. Two $5,000 awards are presented each year.
    • Catherine Nachtigal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), received the John Leland Atwood Graduate Award. Established in 1999, the $1,250 award, sponsored by endowments from Rockwell and what is now The Boeing Company and named in memory of John Leland “Lee” Atwood, former chief executive officer of Rockwell, North America, recognizes a student actively engaged in research in the areas covered by the technical committees of AIAA.
  • Sandro Salguiero, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Lynn Pickering, University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio), each received the Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award. These $5,000 awards, given in memory of the Wright brothers’ contributions to the evolution of flight, recognize two full-time graduate students.

Three AIAA TCs also presented graduate awards:

    • Animesh Shastry, University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland), received the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) TC’s $3,500 Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.
    • Sybren Bootsma, TU Delft (Delft, Netherlands), received the Modeling and Simulation TC’s $3,500 Luis de Florez Graduate Award.
  • Daniel Gochenaur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), received the Air Breathing Propulsion TC’s $1,000 Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award.

AIAA 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 or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Firefly Ready to Test Launch USSF On-Demand Service

Aviation Week reports that sometime in the next six months, Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems and startup Firefly Aerospace “will receive a call from the U.S. Space Force to integrate and launch a satellite in 24 hr.” Until then, the companies “will stand at the ready for the military’s Victus Nox mission.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

EASA Submits EVTOL Operating Regulations

Aviation Week reports that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) “proposed rules for the operation of vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft, including air taxis, emphasize the continuing differences in approach by Europe and the U.S. to regulating the emerging industry.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

GAMA Report Says General Aviation Recovery Sluggish but Positive

AirInsight reports that GAMA “released its shipments and billings report for the second quarter of 2023, and the results are mildly positive for the general aviation market.” The recovery “is slow but positive through the second quarter.” Year over year “through Q2, business jet deliveries are up 2.4%, and the total value of shipments is up 1.5%.” However, as compared with 2019, the industry “remains behind pre-pandemic levels in 2019 in business jet deliveries.” By contrast, the helicopter market “has rebounded significantly, with turbine helicopters now exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels by 13.4% and 23.4% higher billings.” Business jets “have the highest prices and drive revenues for the industry.”
Full Story (Airinsight)