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.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a privately held company founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, has hired Mark Bitterman as senior VP of government affairs, a position he held at competitor Orbital Sciences Corp. SpaceX holds NASA contracts to fly cargo to the space station and upgrade a Dragon cargo capsule for human transport. Bitterman says, "My focus at SpaceX will be to further strengthen the company's relationships with Congress during a time of great challenges for the nation's civil, commercial and military space programs."
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Preparations for the launch of Atlantis and its four astronauts on the final flight in the space shuttle program proceeded smoothly on July 7, but the weather outlook for liftoff at 11:26 a.m. EDT July 8 remained dim. Meteorologists with Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s 45th Space Wing downgraded their launch day forecast to a 70% chance of a scrub due to thunderstorms, clouds and rain.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — With little fanfare, the Kennedy Space Center shuttle launch team gathered at 1 p.m. July 5 to begin the 135th and last countdown for a shuttle launch, aiming to get Atlantis and its four-member crew off the ground at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8. “The team gets into the mode of ‘This is launch countdown,’ and that’s really the focus that everybody has,” says NASA test director Jeremy Graeber. “To do it one more time is a great feeling.”
