Tag: July 2025

ASCENDANTS – Making the Case for Generative, Restorative, and Just Human Space Activity

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Each year for the last five years, ASCEND has featured a group of emerging space visionaries from around the world who offer solutions to the most pressing space sustainability challenges. Known as “ASCENDANTS” (previously the Diverse Dozen), the group, comprised of trailblazers from NGOs, government, and industry from nine countries, address compelling issues ranging from managing space debris to ensuring every country has a seat at the space table, among other topics.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

‘Skyfall’ Mars Mission Proposes to Drop 6 Scout Helicopters onto Mars

SPACE reports, “AeroVironment of Arlington, Virginia and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory today debuted ‘Skyfall,’ a concept for deploying next-generation Mars helicopters that could help pave the way for human landing on Mars through autonomous aerial exploration.”
Full Story (SPACE)



Video

Skyfall – Future Mission Concept for Next-gen Mars Helicopters and Exploration
(Aerovironment; YouTube)

Why Wind Tunnels and Aerodynamic Prediction Tools Matter in Aerospace Engineering

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Rich Wahls, Sustainable Flight National Partnership Mission Integration Manager with NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) and AIAA Fellow, delivered the Applied Aerodynamics Award Lecture this week at the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of aerodynamic testing and the future of flight.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

“Live from the ISS”: 2025 ASCEND Opens with ISS Astronauts, A Sit-Down with Axiom Space CEO

FROM THE INSTITUTE
2025 ASCEND opened Tuesday to a packed room of spellbound space industry members as they watched a live linkup with NASA flight engineers – Lt. Col. Nichole Ayers, USAF, and Col. Anne McClain, USA – onboard the ISS. The conversation, facilitated by Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation (CSF), touched on the ISS’s contributions as an orbiting science laboratory over the last 25 years, and key lessons learned that will benefit future orbiting stations.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

Are Seaplanes Making a Comeback? It May Be Just Beyond the Horizon

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Once upon a time, before the arrival of the jet age, seaplanes owned the skies. Float-planes and flying boats dominated international travel in the earliest decades of aviation, such as the Boeing 314 Clipper that was a mainstay of Pan American’s service and ferried President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Miami to Morocco during World War II. Now, a renaissance may be just beyond the horizon.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

SpaceX Launches NASA’s TRACERS Mission to Study the Origins of Space Weather

Ars Technica reports, “Two NASA satellites rocketed into orbit from California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday, commencing a $170 million mission to study a phenomenon of space physics that has eluded researchers since the dawn of the Space Age. The twin spacecraft are part of the NASA-funded TRACERS mission, which will spend at least a year measuring plasma conditions in narrow regions of Earth’s magnetic field known as polar cusps.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

Technology Can’t Replace Human Pilots, Safety Expert Warns at AIAA AVIATION Forum

FROM THE INSTITUTE
In a stark warning to aviation technologists and policymakers, veteran air safety investigator Greg Feith cautioned against overrelying on automation, emphasizing that human pilots remain critical to aviation safety. Speaking at the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, Feith, a former senior investigator with the NTSB, urged the aviation industry to continue to value human intervention in flight operations at a time when adoption of automation is growing across general and commercial aviation systems.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

Embraer Posts Record $29.7B Backlog, 61 Deliveries in Q2

Aerotime reports, “Brazilian planemaker Embraer announced a record order backlog of US$29.7 billion in the second quarter of 2025, the highest in the company’s history. In its financial results released on July 21, 2025, the manufacturer announced that it has delivered 61 aircraft in Q2 of 2025 across all its business units.”
Full Story (Aerotime)