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.
Southwest Research Institute, a Texas-based non-profit research and development organization, has signed contracts with two aspiring commercial suborbital spacecraft companies to fly researchers and experiments.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA managers have cleared Discovery for launch Feb. 24 on STS-133, the 39th and final flight for the agency’s oldest surviving orbiter. “Everything is on track, going beautifully with the countdown and we are more than ready for tomorrow’s launch,” says Mission Management Team Chairman Mike Moses. “We’ve been ready from a mission standpoint for quite a while, and now our hardware is ready to go.”
CAPE CANAVERAL — The three-day countdown for launch of space shuttle Discovery on its 39th and final mission is under way, with T-0 targeted for 4:50 p.m. EST on Feb. 24. The countdown began at 3 p.m. on Feb. 21 for the mission, designated STS-133, which has been on hold since Nov. 5 to resolve problems that led to cracking in the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The shuttle will carry a logistics module, an external spare parts stowage platform and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
