Delivery of 9,500 lb. of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) Aug. 24 aboard Japan’s unpiloted HTV-5 cargo-carrier Kounotori has restored most of the six-month stash of food, water and equipment NASA likes to keep on board, but the U.S. agency’s initial plan for commercial resupply has gone through some major changes in the face of operational reality.
NanoRacks plans to open commercial research access to the outside of the International Space Station by the spring of 2016 following the arrival of the company’s External Payload Platform earlier this week aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV-5 resupply capsule.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 3 USS Forth Worth proved it could operate with foreign aircraft during recent Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) exercises in the Asia-Pacific.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center has awarded the Raytheon Co. a potential $122.8 million, four-year contract extension for the support of agency spaceflight training and spacecraft mockup facilities.
The Pentagon is planning to increase the number of UAV combat air patrols from 60 to 90 per day, according to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. That will happen in part by adding to the U.S. Army’s global use of the General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Government contractors will operate unarmed UAVs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions“We don’t envision a time when they will need to be armed,” Carter says, adding that the fleet will be better managed.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 25-28—The 9th Asia Pacific Congress of Aerospace Medicine in Conjunction With The 10th Chinese Conference of Aerospace Medicine, Beijing, /www.apfama.org/2014/ Aug. 27-28—International Aerospace Engineering Conference (IAEC), Pan Pacific Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada, http://www.iaec-conference.com/#/conference-venue/4578479934
The aircraft will help the U.S. train with its joint and NATO partners, USAF Secretary Deborah James says. The deployment of the aircraft, she says, will “assure allies and demonstrate our commitment” to the stability of Europe.
Made In Space, a Silicon Valley startup that has worked with NASA to flight test additive manufacturing on the International Space Station, has produced test coupons in a vacuum chamber using 3D printing techniques it hopes to use someday to manufacture large structures in space that could not be made on the ground.
A high-temperature incendiary munition designed to destroy chemical and biological weapons facilities without spreading the dangerous material is to be demonstrated by General Dynamics under a U.S. Air Force contract.
The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority has halted overland air displays by classic jet aircraft following the Aug. 22 crash of a privately owned Hawker Hunter at the Shoreham air show.
The berthing of the fifth cargo mission of the year is expected to sustain six-person operations aboard the orbiting science laboratory late into 2015, while U.S. commercial resuppliers Orbital ATK and SpaceX continue their recoveries from recent launch failures.
“We are keen to have a satellite monitoring station in Fiji to monitor our spacecraft over the Pacific after they have launched,” a senior Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist tells Aviation Week.
Despite budget worries and continued operations against terrorists in the Middle East, the U.S. Defense Department is still sending its newest, best and most advanced aircraft, ships and other equipment to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon says in a recent report.
