Irene Klotz is Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, based in Cape Canaveral. Before joining Aviation Week in 2017, Irene spent 25 years as a wire service reporter covering human and robotic spaceflight, commercial space, astronomy, science and technology for Reuters and United Press International. She also worked with Discovery Communications, Discovery News and was a founding member of Space.com.
Irene cut her teeth on the space beat at Florida Today newspaper, a business writer enchanted by the colorful entrepreneurs who wanted access to Air Force launch facilities and assets after commercial payloads were taken off the space shuttles following the 1986 Challenger accident. Commercial space remains the focus of her work, along with a keen interest in the search for life beyond Earth.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Irene is the 2014 recipient of the Harry Kolcum Memorial News and Communications Award, named in honor of the late Aviation Week managing editor and Cape Canaveral senior editor who was among Irene’s earliest mentors.
Startup Quantum Space is targeting October 2024 for the launch of the first in a series of spacecraft to provide space situational awareness, host customer payloads and other services in cislunar space.
NASA is now spending more money with SpaceX than Boeing, Lockheed or any other single contractor aside from the California Institute of Technology, which operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The independent study team plans to spend nine months collecting unclassified UAP data from civilian government agencies, commercial entities and other sources and recommend a path forward for future analysis.
