LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry has confirmed it is building three landing pads capable of dealing with vertical landings by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
BEIJING — China is close to volume production of aero engines able to handle higher internal temperatures, increasing performance, durability, or both, very probably for use in combat aircraft. The shift is revealed in market inquiries for large supplies of rhenium, a rare metal that increases the temperature-resistance of turbine blades. Timing of production of the new or upgraded engines is unclear, but the metal is needed starting in 2016. At first, some should be intended for stockpiling.
DigitalGlobe, the only producer of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery in the U.S., is now able to sell higher-quality products thanks to regulatory relief provided by the U.S. Commerce Department.
HOUSTON — NASA is training astronauts in aircraft maintenance and repair to give them an analogue for the kind of intricate repairs they may have to perform aboard the now-aging International Space Station (ISS) or a future mission aboard a spacecraft far from Earth.
SCRUBBED: NASA has scrubbed the planned June 11 launch of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator due to unfavorable weather at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. A helium balloon will be used to lift the flying-saucer-shaped vehicle to 120,000 ft., at which point a Star 48B solid-fuel rocket engine will send the vehicle to the edge of the stratosphere to simulate a planetary entry and test atmospheric braking systems, with an eye toward future Mars landings. The next potential launch opportunity is June 14.
Raytheon, the losing bidder of a $915 million contract for the U.S. Air Force’s new Space Fence, is still assessing whether to protest the contract win by Lockheed Martin. The Pentagon announced the award June 2. Raytheon has 10 days after being debriefed by the Air Force on the loss to protest the decision with the Government Accountability Office. Raytheon and the Air Force are being unusually secretive and have declined to say when the debriefing was. The company is still weighing its options.
Google plans to purchase startup commercial remote-sensing services provider Skybox Imaging in a proposed transaction valued at $500 million, pending regulatory approval. If OK’d, the cash transaction would mark the third example in recent months of Google’s increasing interest in employing satellites and high-altitude platforms for Internet connectivity and Earth observation.
HOUSTON — Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station have removed the heater from a water reclamation system in the Russian segment Zvezda service module from which smoke issued briefly on June 10, according to NASA’s Mission Control.
