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)
Tag: Plans
U.S. Air Force Eyes Major Expansion of KC-46A Pegasus Fleet
Aerospace Global News reports, “The Air Force already has around 100 Boeing KC-46A tankers in service, but now it wants to increase that to around 319 eventually. There are rumours it wants to fully replace the KC-135, but that would require an even bigger order. While the aircraft has faced repeated high-profile teething maturation problems, it is the only US tanker aircraft on the market available to replace aging KC-135 and to increase the overall fleet size.”
Full Story (Aerospace Global News)
MBDA Plans $5.8B Investment, 2,800 Hires as Missile Demand Soars
Breaking Defense reports, “European missile giant MBDA plans hire 2,800 new workers and invest €5 billion ($5.8 billion) over the next five years to increase weapons production, CEO Eric Béranger said on Thursday. In comments that often sounded like a victory lap, Béranger stated that ‘MBDA has attained an unprecedented strategic dimension as one of the instrumental pillars of rearmament in Europe,’ a claim he based off of three key figures: that MBDA’s 2025 revenues amounted to €5.8 billion ($6.7 billion), that the order intake was €13.2 billion ($15.2 billion) of which 70 percent came from European customers, and the order backlog was worth €44.4 billion ($51.3 billion).”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)
ESA Plans Dedicated Crew Dragon Mission to ISS in 2028
Space News reports, “The European Space Agency plans to charter a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station to give more flight opportunities for its astronauts. At the conclusion of a meeting of the ESA Council on March 19, the agency said member states endorsed a project called ESA Provided Institutional Crew, or EPIC, to send a European crew to the ISS on a Crew Dragon in early 2028.”
Full Story (Space News)
NASA Plans Early Return for Four ISS Crew Members After Medical Incident
Ars Technica reports, “NASA officials said Thursday they have decided to bring home four of the seven crew members on the International Space Station after one of them experienced a ‘medical situation’ earlier this week. The space agency has said little about the incident, and officials have not identified which crew member suffered the medical issue. James ‘JD’ Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, told reporters Thursday the crew member is ‘absolutely stable’ but that the agency is ‘erring on the side of caution’ with the decision to return the astronaut to Earth.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
US Marine Corps Plans for Two More XQ-58A Test Flights Before Year-end
Flight Global reports the US Marine Corps will conduct two more test flights with the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie “before year-end to continue assessing the potential of so-called manned-unmanned teaming for ‘electronic warfare, autonomous missions and survivability’ applications.”
Full Story (Flight Global)
Duffy to Announce Plans to Build Nuclear Reactor on Lunar Surface
Politico reports, “Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will announce expedited plans this week to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, the first major action by the former Fox News host as the interim NASA administrator. NASA has discussed building a reactor on the lunar surface, but this would set a more definitive timeline and come just as the agency faces a massive budget cut. The move also underscores how Duffy wants to play a role in NASA policymaking.”
Full Story (Politico)
Blue Origin Unveils Plans for Enabling Long-Term Human Presence on the Moon
SPACE reports, “Blue Origin has begun revealing how it plans to establish itself as a provider of hardware to enable long-term human stays on the moon. One newly unveiled key element is the “Transporter,” a vehicle that can be launched on a single Blue Origin New Glenn rocket into low Earth orbit. It will harvest leftover propellant from the booster’s second stage and then haul the hydrogen and oxygen to lunar orbit.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Vertical Aerospace Announces Development of Long-Range Hybrid Air-Taxi Variant of its VX4
Reuters reports, “Vertical Aerospace said on Monday it is developing a long-range hybrid-electric variant of its air-taxi VX4, aiming to expand into commercial markets including defense and logistics. U.S.-listed shares of the British electric aircraft firm rose more than 6% before the bell.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Video
VX4 eVTOL Test Flight
Vertical Aerospace
Boeing to Test MQ-28 Ghost Bat Missile in Late 2025 or Early 2026
Aviation Week reports, “Boeing plans to fire an air-to-air missile from its MQ-28 Ghost Bat uncrewed combat aircraft demonstrator late this year or early next, as part of an effort to accelerate the system’s development, says Steve Parker, acting head of BoeingDefense, Space and Security. Boeing has now flown 102 missions with the system it has designed and built in Australia. The system ‘is really maturing,’ Parker told reporters here at the Avalon Australian International Airshow.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)