LOS ANGELES — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) says the first flight of a reused booster could take place as early as 2015 following encouraging results from the controlled landing into the Atlantic of a modified Falcon 9 first stage on April 18.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to choose between Lockheed Martin’s and Raytheon’s designs for the next-generation Space Fence by the end of May, says Steve Bruce, vice president for space surveillance systems at Lockheed Martin. The contract was slated for award a year ago, but was delayed due to concern that given congressionally mandated sequestration cuts, the Air Force might not be able to afford the program. The resulting contract will be fixed-price with an incentive fee, Bruce says.
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HOUSTON — SpaceX’s third commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station promises to keep ground-based engineers and scientists very busy, as astronauts opened the Dragon hatch, entered the cargo capsule and began to unpack its contents on April 21.
NEW DELHI — India will soon conduct a complex interceptor missile test as part of its project to develop an anti-ballistic missile defense (BMD) system. In a fully automated scenario, an interceptor missile at supersonic speed, equipped with an attitude control mechanism, will seek to intercept an incoming target missile at a speed of 1,500 meters per second (3,355 mph.).
The FAA says the decision by a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) judge overturning the agency’s first fine against an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operator risks causing confusion about what type of aircraft are covered by FAA safety regulations. Administrative law judge Patrick Geraghty on March 6 dismissed the $10,000 fine imposed by the FAA on Raphael Pirker for operating a Ritewing Zephyr over the University of Virginia, arguing the agency has no regulations governing the use of UAS.
Sikorsky has completed an unmanned cargo logistics demonstration with its optionally piloted Black Hawk testbed and says the next demo will involve teaming with an unmanned ground vehicle. A UH-60MU fly-by-wire (FBW) test aircraft modified for optionally piloted operation completed the cargo demo on March 11 under Sikorsky’s Manned/Unmanned Aerial Lifter (Mural) program, a cooperative effort with the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Navy accepted the delivery this month of the LHA-6 America, the first ship of the Amphibious Assault Replacement Program, LHA(R), a ship designed and built to enhance U.S. Marine Corps aviation operations.
SINGAPORE — Malaysian specialist contractor Global Komited Sdn Bhd has signed a deal with Thales to develop and distribute ground-based air defense systems to the Malaysian armed forces. Global Komited supplies automotive, aviation and electronic products and services to both commercial and defense customers in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified Airbus Helicopters’ new version of the EC145 light twin-engine helicopter. EASA certification for the EC145 T2 covers single-pilot, instrument flight rules (IFR) and night-vision goggle operation, the manufacturer says. EASA has not yet published the certification documents on its website, due to the Easter break.
The first of six sites selected by the FAA in December to conduct unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) research has become operational and plans to begin flying a small quadcopter in early May in support of precision agriculture research. The Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems test site won the race to be the first of the six to become operational when the FAA awarded the North Dakota Department of Commerce a certificate of authorization (COA) to operate the Draganflyer X4-ES small UAS.
With sophisticated autonomous capabilities under development for unmanned aircraft, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) wants to bring high levels of automation to existing manned aircraft to reduce pilot workload while increasing mission capability and safety. The agency has scheduled a proposers’ day for May 14 in Washington to brief potential bidders on the new Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System (Alias) program, which aims to demonstrate a drop-in, removable kit that would enable operation with fewer crew on board.
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