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.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NASA’s expected shift from traditional cost-plus contracts to fixed-price procurements will affect not only how the agency buys spacecraft and services for flying astronauts to orbit, but also how it provides for the maintenance and operation of the International Space Station (ISS), Deputy Administrator Lori Garver says.
Testing for Virgin Galactic’s planned commercial suborbital spaceflight service extends beyond expanding the flight envelopes of SpaceShipTwo and the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft — the company has been “testing” its first group of customers, some 370 people from 35 countries who have paid or put down deposits for the $200,000 ride.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Workers at Kennedy Space Center plan to drain the fuel from shuttle Discovery’s Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) tanks and lines to fix a suspected leak in the crossfeed flange area.
