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.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The STS-133 crew and shuttle launch team completed the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test at Kennedy Space Center Oct. 15 with a simulated main engine abort at T-minus 4 sec., encountering no hurdles in the run-up to Discovery’s final liftoff Nov. 1. “I think it went real well, right by the book,” commander Steve Lindsey said as the simulation ended. “I wish we could save this weather for Nov. 1.”
With the final crews in training for NASA’s last three space shuttle missions, the number of astronauts in the corps is down to 65 – a 25% drop since last year. NASA plans to keep its roster of astronauts at 65 to support spaces station operations and other programs, including the development of the agency’s Orion deep space capsule and planned commercial crew vehicles, said Jerry Ross, a seven-time shuttle veteran who heads the agency’s Vehicle Integration Test Office, an engineering support team for the Astronaut Office.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center have begun removing pieces of the space shuttle’s Rotating Service Structure at Launch Pad 39B as part of an ongoing demolition project aimed at creating a clean, multi-use pad for future government and commercial vehicles.
