Breaking Defense reports, “As part of its Drone Dominance initiative, the Pentagon has named five winners of a ‘lethality’ challenge, a title that could place them ahead of other vendors in the race to snag deals to arm small drones. On the competition’s website, the Pentagon announced that Bravo Ordnance, Kela Defense, Kraken Kinetics, Mountain Horse and Northrop Grumman have all been named winners of the recent Lethality Prize Challenge.”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)
Tag: May 2026
Astrolab’s Debut Lunar Rover to Deliver Four NASA Payloads to the Moon
Space News reports, “Astrolab’s first lunar rover will carry four NASA payloads on a mission planned to launch later this year. Astrolab announced May 18 that it had reached agreements with four NASA centers to fly payloads on its FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform, or FLIP, rover scheduled to launch on Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander late this year.”
Full Story (Space News)
Inaugural ASCEND Classified Day Convenes 100 National Security, Intelligence, and Industry Leaders
FROM THE INSTITUTE
AIAA’s inaugural ASCEND Classified Day, hosted at The Aerospace Corporation’s corporate headquarters, provided the AIAA technical community an opportunity to hear directly from national leaders about what is needed to deliver continuing leadership in space and to address and dissect the pressing challenges for doing so.
FAA Lowers Air Traffic Controller Staffing Goal Amid Modernization Push
CNBC reports, “The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it was sharply reducing its target for air traffic control staffing as it vowed to modernize scheduling and increase the time employees spend managing traffic. The FAA said its new target is 12,563 certified controllers, down from 14,633. A National Academies of Sciences report last year said overtime costs for air traffic controllers, have jumped by more than 300% since 2013 to over $200 million, citing a misallocated workforce and inefficient scheduling.”
Full Story (CNBC)
AIAA, Amazon Leo, Eutelsat, Iridium, and SpaceX Release Reference Guide: “Satellite Orbital Safety Best Practices 3.0”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Authors will discuss on 19 May, ASCEND 2026, Washington, DC
May 18, 2026 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), along with Amazon Leo, Eutelsat, Iridium Communications, Inc., and SpaceX, today announced the release of the third edition of its best practices reference guide, “Satellite Orbital Safety Best Practices 3.0.”
The 3.0 version is updated since its original publication in 2022, providing additional lessons learned and adding clarity and rationale for the recommendations. Extending the work of others, including NASA, the 18th Space Control Squadron, Secure World Foundation, and the Space Safety Coalition, the 3.0 version provides a consolidated, high-level set of recommended best practices that span design, launch, orbital operations, and disposal.
Key Features of “Satellite Orbital Safety Best Practices 3.0”
- Emphasizes the design phase for improved orbital safety
- Stresses pre-launch coordination and collision avoidance analysis, especially near crewed vehicles, mitigating hazards during post-launch identification and cataloging of new orbital objects
- Provides guidance on data sharing across design and operations emphasizing the critical importance of sharing and screening high quality ephemeris with covariance from deployment through disposal
- Includes an Appendix with data exchange recommendations to mitigate conjunctions
AIAA is providing access to download the reference guide today, in advance of ASCEND 2026, to address the urgency of space traffic coordination. Industry professionals can talk directly with the authors of the document – low Earth orbit industry experts from major satellite constellation operators – to discuss its implementation during ASCEND 2026:
Panel Discussion: Orbital Safety Best Practices for Satellite Operators
ASCEND 2026, Washington Hilton, Washington, DC
Tuesday, 19 May, 3:30 p.m. ET
- Sandra Magnus, Principal, AstroPlanetview, LLC (Moderator)
- Josef Koller, Head of Space Safety and Sustainability, Amazon Leo
- Dave Goldstein, Principal Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer, SpaceX
- Pablo Minguijon Pallas, Head of Flight Dynamics and Mission Analysis, Eutelsat*
- Ryan Shepperd, Space Situational Awareness Lead, Iridium
*Also part of the update effort, but unable to attend.
Registration for 2026 ASCEND is open. Journalists can request a Press Pass online.
Media contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270
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 www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.
Region V Student Conference Brings Together a Community to Share Ideas and Celebrate Innovation
From the Institute
From 26 to 27 March, the AIAA Region V Student Conference was held at Iowa State University. The conference included everything from engaging technical presentations to conversations with passionate high school and college students, and it was clear the future of aerospace is in incredibly capable hands. What stood out most was the community of students, faculty, and professionals all coming together to support one another, share ideas, and celebrate innovation.
NASA Accelerates X-59 Flight Campaign Ahead of First Supersonic Test
Aviation Week reports, “NASA is continuing to speed up the rate of X-59 flight tests as the Quesst low-boom supersonic demonstrator program builds up to its first Mach 1 faster-than-sound milestone flight. The needle nose Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-built aircraft has so far accumulated around 19.6 flight hours on 16 flights, eight of which were completed in April.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Virgin Galactic Nears Operational Return With Upgraded Spaceplane Fleet
Space News reports, “Virgin Galactic said May 14 it remains on track, technically and financially, to start commercial flights of its next-generation suborbital spaceplane before the end of the year. In a first-quarter earnings call, company executives said work on its first SpaceShip vehicle is on schedule, with the completed airframe recently moving from its assembly hangar to a testing hangar at its production facility near Phoenix.”
Full Story (Space News)
ASCEND 2026 Puts “Need for Speed” at the Center of National Security Space
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Space is no longer a benign operating environment. It is a contested warfighting domain, where adversaries are rapidly expanding counter-space capabilities and testing U.S. resilience on orbit and across the industrial base. Against this backdrop, ASCEND 2026 will feature its most robust national security programming to date showing how the United States can outpace adversaries, harden critical space infrastructure, and transform its space industrial base.
Digital Engineering Helps Restore B-1B Bomber in Record Time
Air Force Times reports that the US Air Force “finished retiring 17 B-1B Lancer bombers this week, its first step toward divesting the entire fleet within the next two decades.” The US Air Force announced Friday that the 17 bombers left Edwards Air Force Base on Thursday for the aviation graveyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Of the original 100 B-1Bs, 45 are still operational “and are housed at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, and Dyess AFB, Texas.
Full Story (Air Force Times)