As NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission speeds back to Earth to drop off materials gathered from the surface of Bennu, scientists have used data gathered during 30 months of close-up reconnaissance to determine the 500-meter-wide (1,640-ft.) object poses an extremely small impact threat to Earth.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested the country will invest in a fleet of firefighting aircraft after a series of devastating forest blazes forced the country to call on international help.
The Cygnus, named for the late NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka, carries 8,210 lb. of crew supplies, ISS equipment, science experiments and technology demonstrations.
Airbus has said the partnership’s Bridge Tanker proposal will be based on the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), but comments from a Skunk Works executive suggest advanced upgrades could be added for the U.S. version of the international best-seller.
A specialist in dexterous robotic manipulators has received $1 million in U.S. Army funding to develop a system to autonomously refuel Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters in the field.
Africa has emerged as a proving ground for drone delivery, headlined by Zipline’s large-scale on-demand medical delivery networks in Rwanda, Ghana and now Nigeria. Now the continent is turning its attention to urban air mobility.
Tokyo-based startup SkyDrive has begun cooperating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on aerodynamic research to support development of its planned electric urban air vehicle.
Within the month, the Joint Staff plans to hold an industry day, according to U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lockheed Martin has confirmed a secret customer has ordered the Speed Racer flight vehicle that the Skunk Works unveiled a year ago as a technology demonstrator.
U.S. agriculture and biofuel organizations have urged the U.S. Congress to base a proposed tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel on the most updated and accurate lifecycle carbon assessment methods and not the modeling used by the ICAO.
Joby Aviation has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange, a milestone on its 15-year journey to launch commercial aerial ridesharing services in the U.S. in 2024.
The bill calls for the intelligence community and the Pentagon to relay all data related to unidentified aerial phenomena “immediately to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.”
The U.S. Army’s next installment of Project Convergence—an experiment that seeks to link disparate military platforms—will involve all three services and focus on maximizing the use of data and sharing it across the joint force, according to the deputy commander of Army Futures Command.
Efforts by NASA to develop a next-generation spacesuit face significant cost and schedule challenges that will push back its availability to April 2025 at the earliest, according to audit by the agency’s inspector general.
