In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Oct. 12 2022

Credit: Aura Aero. French startup Aura Aero is looking to acquire a small carbon-fiber specialist as it intends to use the material for the wing of its planned 19-seat Electric Regional Aircraft (ERA).

Credit: Eutelsat. Eutelsat Communications said Oct. 12 that its proposed acquisition of OneWeb would grow its annual expected revenue to almost $2 billion by fiscal 2027, from less than $1.2 billion in fiscal 2021.

Credit: NASA. NASA has awarded two companies contracts to undertake capability studies that assess and demonstrate communications and navigation services in support of the agency’s Artemis initiative.

Credit: ispace. Ispace of Japan plans to launch the world’s first private lunar lander mission, dubbed Mission 1, during a target window of Nov. 9-15.

Credit: SpaceX. Pioneering space tourist Dennis Tito, who 21 years ago became the first privately paying passenger to visit the International Space Station (ISS), has booked two seats aboard a planned SpaceX Starship mission around the Moon. 

Hawk

Credit: VibeTech. Energy management company KULR Technology Group has acquired a vibration reduction capability originally developed to balance helicopter rotors that it plans to expand to “anything that spins,” from electric motors to wind turbines.

Credit: Rocket Lab. A Rocket Lab Electron booster has arrived at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in preparation for the company’s first launch from the U.S.

Credit: XPeng. China’s XPeng AeroHT has completed the first public flight of its fifth-generation X2 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, in Dubai, as it prepares to release details of its planned sixth-generation fly/drive vehicle.

Credit: Plana. South Korean startup Plana has secured $9 million in pre-Series A funding to continue development of its planned hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi.

Credit: ULA. A pair of test satellites for Amazon’s planned 3,236-member Kuiper broadband constellation will be launched as secondary payloads on the debut flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan-Centaur rocket, targeted for early 2023.

Credit: Newscom/Alamy Live News. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ordered the Epsilon-6 rocket to self-destruct on the morning of Oct. 12 after the launch vehicle deviated from its intended path.