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.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael Taverna (Paris), Irene Klotz (Cape Canaveral)
Astrium’s Spanish unit has delivered the flight model high-gain antenna (HGA) for NASA’s Mars Space Laboratory (MSL), scheduled for launch in 2011. The unit, to be carried on the MSL’s Curiosity rover, was produced under a bilateral agreement between NASA and Spain’s Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). Spain’s first hardware ever to touch down on Mars, the HGA permits transmission of science and rover health data and Earth commands directly, without passing through an orbiter or intermediate links.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael Taverna (Paris), Irene Klotz (Cape Canaveral)
Germany’s Infoterra GmbH. will begin selling the first element of its TerraSAR-X Elevation digital surface model (DSM) product line, based on its exclusive commercial rights to high-resolution satellite radar data from the TerraSAR-X spacecraft. This image of a diverse tropical forest in Sabah, Malaysia, shows how the automated elevation process produces “bare Earth” imagery even through heavy vegetation by applying radargrammetry techniques to TerraSAR-X data. The DSM features 10-meter (33- ft.) grid space and an absolute height accuracy of up to 5 meters.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael Taverna (Paris), Irene Klotz (Cape Canaveral)
Telesat will be the latest satellite operator to deploy a hosted payload for government and military use. The X-band payload will be installed on Anik G1, ordered last week from sister company Space Systems/Loral. International Launch Services was signed up for the launch, set for the second half of 2012. To be located at 107.3 deg. W. Long., G1 will also carry 16 extended Ku-band transponders to be operated by Shaw Direct, a leading Canadian direct-to-home television provider, along with 12 Ku- and 24 C-band transponders to serve the hot South American market.
