In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Mar 15, 2022

March 16, 2022

Astra Returns To Flight With Successful Mission From Alaska

Credit: NASASpaceFlight.com/Astra webcast


Less than five weeks after technical issues thwarted Astra Space’s first commercial mission, the Alameda, California, startup returned to the launchpad March 15 with a successful flight for another paying customer. Astra’s Rocket 3.3 launch vehicle, designated LV0009, lifted off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska’s Kodiak Island at 12:22 p.m. EDT/9:22 a.m. local time on a mission for Seattle-based Spaceflight.

U.S. General Says F-15s Will Be Provided To Egypt

Credit: Tech. Sgt. John McRell, USAF


The U.S. government has approved plans to export Boeing F-15EX fighters to Egypt, the head of U.S. Central Command told lawmakers March 15. “In the case of Egypt, I think we have good news,” said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command. “We’re going to provide them with F-15s.”

AeroMobil Presents Plans For Drive/Fly Ridesharing Service

Credit: AeroMobil


Slovakian startup AeroMobil is briefing potential investors on its plans to set up the first door-to-door aerial ridesharing service in the U.S. using a four-seat drive/fly vehicle. Investor presentations have been conducted during a tour of U.S. cities with a full-scale mockup of its initial two-seat AM4.0

York, Northrop, Lockheed Split Tranche 1 Transport Layer Awards

Credit: Stephen Forbes/DARPA


Three companies will each build 42 small communications satellites to support a new constellation of U.S. military reconnaissance and missile tracking sensors in space, the Space Development Agency (SDA) said March 15. The agency awarded contracts worth a combined $1.8 billion to Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems and York Space Systems to build the 126 satellites that will form the Tranche 1 Transport Layer.

Circor In Acquisition Talks, Must Restate 2019-20 Financial Results

Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy Stock Photo


Flow-control products and services provider Circor on March 14 announced it was in talks for a possible sale of all or part of the company, and also that it rescinded its financial reports for 2019-20 due to its Pipeline Engineering business unit. In a prepared statement, Circor said it started receiving “multiple” inquiries from outsider groups regarding the sale of all or part of the company.

NASA Astronaut Vande Hei Sets U.S. Human Spaceflight Record

Credit: NASA TV


NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by an American on March 15 while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Vande Hei broke the previous U.S. record of 340 days set by now-retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly in 2015-16. Kelly returned to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with two cosmonauts on March 1, 2016.

NASA IG Urges Greater Insider Cybersecurity Threat Protection

Credit: NASA


NASA has agreed to address so-called insider cybersecurity threats to its unclassified programs in response to an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general (IG). “NASA’s Insider Threat Program,” a 31-page audit, was released by NASA IG Paul K. Martin on March 14. It found that NASA, like other federal agencies, has taken appropriate steps to address cybersecurity threats to its classified programs, but recommended efforts to extend that protection to its many unclassified programs and initiatives.

From Astra returns to flight with a successful mission from Alaska to F-15s being exported to Egypt, says U.S Generals. Take a look at these and more in our daily roundup of aerospace & defense news. 

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