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. — A $2 billion multi-national particle detector scheduled to be installed outside the International Space Station during the final space shuttle mission in February arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 26 following a change-out of its cryogenically cooled magnet for a permanent magnet at CERN in Geneva.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The FAA has selected a team led by New Mexico State University in Las Cruces to develop a research center on commercial space transportation. Partners in the project include Stanford University, the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion at Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
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.
