Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Selected U.S. military contracts from the past week.
Defense

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

By Irene Klotz
NASA and the European Space Agency have signed contracts with privately owned Nanoracks to use the company’s Bishop airlock, which is due to be delivered to the International Space Station next month.
Space

By Bill Carey
Transport Canada has granted geomatics company MVT Geo-solutions permission to fly drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) of an operator to perform powerline inspections in Alma, Quebec.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
California-based Pyka has a “minimum viable product” it believes can accelerate fielding of two of the hottest technologies in aviation: autonomy and electric propulsion.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Bill Carey
Satellite network operators Inmarsat and Hughes Network Systems announced a “strategic collaboration” on Oct. 20 to provide in-flight connectivity designed for commercial airlines in North America.
Commercial Space

By Bradley Perrett
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is proposing to use improved versions of its H3 rocket as a launcher for lunar supply.
Space

By Bill Carey
U.S. drone start-up Volansi announced on Oct. 20 that it is testing the delivery of temperature-controlled medicines in North Carolina with pharmaceutical company Merck.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Tony Osborne
Ukraine has already purchased Baykar Makina Bayraktar TB2 unmanned air systems from Turkey and is a partner in the development on the company’s larger Akinci medium-altitude, long-endurance platform.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Irene Klotz
With the arrival of 60 more Starlink satellites into orbit on Oct. 18 and another 60 due to launch this week, SpaceX intends to roll out public trials of its high-speed internet service before year’s end.
Space

By Mark Carreau
The modest sample of pebbles and soil that NASA’s Osiris-Rex sample return mission will attempt to gather from the asteroid Bennu may hold important clues to how life arose on Earth and perhaps other planetary bodies.
Space

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is supporting the Space Development Agency by building a hardware and software testbed for optical communications to enable interoperability between different satellites.
Space

By Steve Trimble
A National Academy of Sciences committee has been formed to study the technical feasibility of the U.S. Army's Strategic Long-Range Cannon.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
Swedish defense firm Saab has taken a 1.1 billion Swedish Krona ($130 million) charge over impacts on production of the Gripen combat aircraft due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
European missile manufacturer MBDA is developing a ground-launched variant of its MICA NG air-to-air missile.
Missile Defense & Weapons

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

Aviation Week’s virtual Defense Chain conference (defensechain.aviationweek.com) is underway this week with speakers including Shawn Barnes, deputy
Defense

By Tony Osborne
British start-up Stratospheric Platforms is developing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air system (UAS) that could provide cellular connectivity to remote areas.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Mark Carreau
NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to launch and deliver a drill and mass spectrometer payload to the Moon by December 2022 to seek out seek out and attempt to harvest subsurface water ice at the lunar south pole for the first time.
Space

By Mark Carreau
There is promising new science on the horizon as NASA’s nimble Osiris-Rex sample return spacecraft prepares for a daring brief encounter on Oct. 20 with its distant target, the primitive asteroid Bennu.
Space

By Steve Trimble
The declaration by Iran appears to open the door to re-opening arms purchases with China and Russia, but U.S. diplomats warned any such deals would trigger a new round of sanctions.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Lee Hudson
The lack of an appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the president is forcing the U.S. Space Force to slow down some of its work.
Space

By Graham Warwick
South Korean wireless communication provider SK Telecom is to establish a mobility business unit, and a joint venture with Uber, with urban air mobility as a future target market.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
Airbus in Spain is proposing the development of a single-engine transonic performance jet trainer that could support pilots going on to fly the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A video of a missile test from the Black Sea report of Sinop on Oct. 16 drew a response from the U.S. Defense Department condemning its NATO ally, if the reports of an S-400 missile firing are accurate.
Missile Defense & Weapons