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.
KENEDY SPACE CENTER — Competitive grants and an FAA-run center for commercial space would be the best use of $40 million in taxpayer money that President Barack Obama wants to spend in Brevard County, Fla., and neighboring regions affected by the space shuttle’s retirement, a Cabinet-level task force reports.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, wants to spur commercial space projects with tax breaks and other incentives. Nelson plans to introduce legislation creating up to five enterprise zones in the United States to serve as “magnets” for commercial space ventures. He made the announcement Aug. 17 at a press conference at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, which presumably would be one of the commercial space districts.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The first spacecraft in the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite network reached geosynchronous transfer orbit on Aug. 14, capping a nine-year effort to develop a successor to the existing Milstar II communications spacecraft.
