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.
Space Exploration Technologies, the poster child of commercial space advocates and the whipping boy of its foes, is girding for a second major hurdle this summer in its quest to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station, following a successful debut flight of the Falcon 9 rocket on June 4.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Overcoming a main engine pad abort, a Flight Termination System communications glitch and a boat that strayed into the launch danger zone, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its debut Falcon 9 rocket June 4 on a test flight prior to a demonstration mission for NASA this summer.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael Taverna (Paris), Irene Klotz (Cape Canaveral)
Orbital Sciences Corp. has been tapped to build Azerbaijan’s first satellite, demonstrating again the niche value of its small Star-2 geostationary satellite bus. Dubbed Azerspace/Africasat-1A, the spacecraft will carry 36 active transponders in the Ka- and C-bands to provide telecommunications to Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe and Africa. Dulles, Va.-based Orbital will provide the spacecraft and ground systems for a satellite control center in Baku, the Azeri capital. The spacecraft will be positioned at 46 deg. E. Long.
