FlightGlobal reports L3Harris and BAE Systems have delivered the first EC-37B Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft to the US Air Force. The article mentions that while the previous EC-130H Compass Call “was based on the Lockheed Martin turboprop transport,” the EC-37B is built on the Gulfstream G550 platform. BAE Systems “oversaw the production of the electronic attack package, while L3Harris was the prime contractor for integrating those mission systems into the Gulfstream jet.” BAE Systems “says the new aircraft will deliver much needed electronic attack capability to the USAF, which is in the process of reorienting its forces to survive in well-defended airspace contested by a modern adversary.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
Tag: first
USAF Completes First Uncrewed Test Flight Utilizing AI
Bloomberg Government reported that the US Air Force “has completed its first flight with an uncrewed combat aircraft using artificial intelligence, according to the Department of Defense.” The XQ-58A Valkyrie combat aircraft by Kratos Defense and Security Solutions “led a three-hour simulated combat mission at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio on July 25.” The AI-led flight “was a product of an Air Force Research Laboratory effort, the Skyborg Vanguard program, which uses an autonomous aircraft teaming architecture and integrates multiple technology components.” Skyborg is “building a system that is portable and modular – fitting into multiple aircraft platforms.”
Full Story (Bloomberg Government)
Vulcan Rolled Out to Launchpad for Final Series of Tests Ahead of its Debut Launch
Aviation Week (5/11) reports that a “United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan-Centaur rocket was rolled out to its launchpad on May 11 for a final series of tests ahead of its debut launch, targeted for this summer.” Space News reports ULA said on Thursday that the “Vulcan is in position atop SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to undergo a full launch day rehearsal tomorrow and flight readiness firing test of its main engines planned for next week.” ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted on Wednesday that the “Vulcan was returning to tanking tests although the investigation of a Centaur upper-stage testing anomaly that occurred on March 29 has not yet been completed.” Bruno said that “ULA plans to livestream the flight-readiness test firing of the BE-4 main engines. The test fire is expected to last about six seconds, he said. ‘A short burn, but a very long time to be on the pad.’”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)
Comlux Delivers First Completed ACJ TwoTwenty to Five Hotels
Aviation International News reports that Comlux delivered the first completed ACJ TwoTwenty to launch customer Five Hotels and Resorts. Airbus Corporate Jets partnered with Comlux in 2020 “to bring the executive variant of the Airbus 220 single-aisle airliner to the business aviation market.” Comlux is “designing and installing the interiors on the first 16 of the TwoTwenty; at least 10 have been ordered to date.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
ULA Expects Vulcan Launch in the Summer, at Earliest
Gizmodo reports United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno tweeted that company’s Vulcan rocket’s earliest estimated launch date would be “June/July.” ULA previously planned a May 4 inaugural flight, but in late March a spark triggered a fireball during testing of a Vulcan upper stage at the test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The Vulcan’s first launch “is set to deliver Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, which, on behalf of NASA, will attempt to deliver 11 payloads to the surface of the Moon.”
Full Story (Gizmodo)
ULA Announces May Launch for First Vulcan Centaur Rocket
Space News reports that the “first launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than May 4, a date the company says is based on remaining tests of the rocket and its main engines as well as launch windows for its primary payload.” In a call with reporters Thursday, ULA CEO Tory Bruno “announced the date for the long-awaited inaugural flight of the rocket as the company gears up for a series of tests of the rocket at Space Launch Complex 41. The launch will carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation and a payload for space memorial company Celestis.” Bruno said, “We are now targeting the fourth of May so we plan our manifest around that and be ready to fly that payload when it comes in.” According to Space News, “ULA will have a window of about four days to conduct the launch.”
Full Story (Space News)
Rocket Lab Launches First US Mission
Reuters reports that Rocket Lab “launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, kicking off an expansion of the company’s launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at U.S. space ports.” The Long Beach, California-based company’s workhorse “Electron rocket, an expendable launcher standing 40 feet (12 meters) tall, lifted off at 6 p.m. EST from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.” The mission “marked Rocket Lab’s first outside its flagship launchsite on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Video
Rocket Lab Launches First Electron mission from Virginia, Tuesday, January 24, at 6 p.m. EST from Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)
Firefly Aerospace Launches its First Rocket into Orbit
Bloomberg reported Firefly Aerospace Inc. has “launched its first rocket into orbit, advancing the private space startup’s bid to become a reliable partner for NASA.” Firefly’s Alpha rocket “took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California early Saturday and successfully put three small payloads into Earth orbit, including one for the US space agency. A previous launch attempt failed in September 2021 when the debut Alpha rocket veered off course and had to be exploded shortly after takeoff.” Saturday’s launch “follows years of engineering work, litigation and financial struggles for Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly, one of several companies NASA selected to deliver science payloads to the moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.”
Full Story (Bloomberg)
KC-46 Flies First Combat Refueling Sortie
Aviation Week reports that the Boeing KC-46 “has flown its first combat refueling sortie as part of an exercise to employ the tanker downrange before it is officially operational.” A KC-46 deployed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar “fueled up two Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles” on August 29.
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann to be First Native American Woman in Space
CBS News reports that NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann is set to become the first Native American woman to travel to space when “NASA launches its next crew aboard a SpaceX Dragon this fall.” Liftoff is targeted for September 29. Mann “will be joined on the Crew-5 mission by NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.”
Full Story (CBS News)