Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Irene Klotz
Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for NASA’s deep-space crewed Orion spacecraft, has completed assembly and testing of the capsule earmarked for a flight test in November and transferred possession to NASA.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
Blue Origin credits a team of experienced industry partners with its success so far as a competitor to build NASA’s lunar Human Landing System to shuttle future astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.
Commercial Space

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force could soon have a new competitor for production funding to the F-35: the Next Generation Air Dominance program.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The new acquisition strategy for ReleaseONE signals Roper’s plan to harvest the first tranche of ABMS technologies into a batch of systems that can be acquired, developed and fielded.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Irene Klotz
Blue Origin tested an upgraded New Shepard suborbital launch system on Jan. 14, sending the uncrewed, six-passenger capsule to an altitude of 347,568 ft. before it made a parachute return to the West Texas desert.
Commercial Space

By Michael Bruno
Publicly traded space-related stocks received a proverbial booster shot this week when a popular investment manager unveiled a new electronically traded fund focusing on space.
Space

By Mark Carreau
SpaceX’s latest Dragon International Space Station resupply mission concluded late Jan. 13 with the first splashdown off the U.S. East Coast, delivering a 4,400-lb. cargo rich in time-sensitive scientific research.
Space

By Tony Osborne
The Greek Parliament has approved the country’s purchase of Dassault Rafale fighter jets, but the buy only fulfils part of Athens’ desire to field 40 new-generation combat aircraft by 2025.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) is debuting its KC-390 airlifter on a foreign military exercise for the first time, with a deployment to the United States.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
AeroVironment on Jan. 13 announced its second major acquisition in as many months, unveiling a deal to buy Arcturus UAV, a privately-held provider of Group 2 and 3 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and contractor-owned services to military customers.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
The Pentagon on Jan. 13 formally unveiled the Trusted Capital Digital Marketplace, a network for preapproved U.S. investor groups to match with technology startups deemed interesting enough to U.S. national security agencies to guard against Chinese or other foreign investment stakes.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
The new development program is part a series of contracts awarded in the past year worth a total of $974 million to continue and expand production of the radar seekers for PAC-3.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Michael Bruno
An Italian startup focused on the rapidly growing ground-segment-as-a-service market, Leaf Space, has raised €10 million ($12.15 million) in a Series A venture capital round, the company announced Jan. 13.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
An $88 million project backed by the Jeff Bezos Earth Fund has selected SpaceX to launch a nonprofit’s methane-tracking satellite in October 2022.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
Intuitive Machines has for a second time selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission lander to the Moon.
Commercial Space

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force selected the Army’s Redstone Arsenal facility over six locations in the final eight days of the tenure of President Donald Trump, who created the new organization as the new combatant command supported by the U.S. Space Force.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Efforts to find and fix small leaks aboard the International Space Station continue.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Japan has joined the space agencies of Canada and Europe in formally partnering with NASA in the development of a lunar-orbiting, human-tended Gateway.
Space

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $1.6 billion contract modification for 12 KC-46A tanker aircraft and anticipates the work will wrap up in April 2023.
Air Dominance

By Steve Trimble
The allegations concerned five contracts with the Navy and two contracts with Special Operations Command to support UAS over an eight-year period ending in 2017.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
Sweden will retain around 40 Saab Gripen C/Ds fighters into the 2030s as part of the country’s enhanced defense plans, ministers have revealed.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Thierry Dubois
A newly created “European launcher alliance” will gather the European Commission, the European Space Agency, EU member states and the launcher industry to work out a road map for future European launchers, the EC has announced.
Space

By Steve Trimble
As the system integrator for the intermediate-range OpFires missiles, Lockheed’s Missile and Fire Control division completed a preliminary design review during Phase 3a.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
Retired Airbus CEO Thomas Enders has joined the board of Lilium, adding the weight of his reputation to the German startup’s ambitious plans to launch a regional air mobility service by 2025.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Thierry Dubois
Exotrail has conducted an in-orbit demonstration of its miniaturized electric thruster, paving the way for the propulsion of nanosatellites.
Commercial Space