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.
CAPE CANAVERAL— Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company, has signed a launch services contract with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) for a Falcon 9 rocket to deliver a lander, small rover and up to about 240 lb. of payload to the surface of the Moon, the company announced Feb. 6.
NASA is ramping up preparations to install Ad Astra Rocket Co.’s prototype 200-kw variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (Vasimr) engine on the International Space Station’s Z1 truss in 2014. About 100 NASA employees, primarily from the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Office, have been assigned to work with the Houston-based company, and an agreement for additional engineering support from the Johnson Space Center is pending, says CEO Franklin Chang-Diaz, a physicist and seven-time space shuttle astronaut.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Robert Bigelow, hotelier and space entrepreneur, came here to Cape Canaveral on Feb. 2 with a plan to help keep Florida’s Space Coast afloat.
