In celebration of Nelson Mandela on Mandela Day, Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite have announced a new initiative, inspired by the great man himself.

Walking through the Paris air show last month, I was struck by the large number of companies exhibiting under one regional or cluster umbrella. There were, to mention a few, Aerospace Valley, Rockford Area Aerospace Network, Monterrey Aerocluster Mexico, Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster, Aero Montreal, Skywin Wallonie and Northwest Aerospace Alliance. Such groupings have a basic economic rationale: They allow small suppliers to be present at a show without bearing the full costs of renting their own stands in an exhibit hall.

Definition team sets Mars 2020 goals

Another test failure casts doubt on U.S. multibillion dollar shield

In the 1960s, NASA had a couple of ways to get to the surface of the Moon. They came together in this famous November 1969 photo of Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad examining the Surveyor 3 robotic lander, with the lunar module Intrepid that brought him to the Moon parked on the horizon. Those days are long gone now, but the U.S. space agency still wants to go to the Moon—for science and for exploration experiments.

After receiving initial FAA certification in March of a system combining satellite-based communications with helicopter health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS), Honeywell aims to evolve the capability for inflight broadband connectivity on passenger airliners. (Photo: Inmarsat)

Ariane 6 aims for rapid development and lower launch costs.

Telespazio has been awarded a €216 million ($277 million) contract by the European Satellite Service Provider, ESSP SAS, as part of the European Union’s Egnos satellite navigation overlay program. The eight-year contract was signed in Toulouse by Telespazio CEO Luigi Pasquali and ESSP President Dirk Werquin. It gives the Finmeccanica/Thales-owned satellite services company the lead-subcontractor role to ESSP, a consortium of European air navigation authorities that functions as the Egnos system operator and service provider to the European Commission.