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. — Changes to a $2 billion particle detector to be installed outside the International Space Station have prompted NASA to retarget the final flight in the space shuttle program for November. With an extra $600 million expected to extend shuttle operations into the last three months of the year, NASA agreed to delay launch of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) from July 29 to mid-November.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Complex 41 April 22, sending the X-37B experimental space vehicle on its first test flight. Started by NASA in the late 1990s, the X-37 program was adopted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and later transferred to the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, culminating in its launch at 7:52 p.m. EDT.
The high-profile Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics experiment to be mounted on the International Space Station will be outfitted with a magnet flown in 1998 on the STS-91 prototype AMS.
