Aerospace & Defense Roundup: April. 29

Arianespace’s Vega light launcher placed six satellites into orbit on April 28 in a successful return to flight that was crucial for the program. Launched from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, mission VV18 was carrying six satellites. The rocket lifted off five months after mission VV17 failed due to an assembly error. Two months prior VV16 had been successful, but another failure followed, this time a consequence of a design issue. Credit: Arianespace

China has launched the first module of its new Tiangong (Heaven’s Palace) space station. The Tianhe (Harmony of Heavens) core module took off atop a Long March 5B heavy rocket at 11:23 p.m. EDT on April 28 from the Wenchang Launch Site on the coast of southern China’s island province of Hainan. Credit: CAST

Finland has received the best and final offers from governments in the bidding for the country’s HX fighter contest. The Finnish defense ministry confirmed it has received all five proposals from the governments of four countries for the five Western combat aircraft on offer. Credit: BAE Systems

The U.S. Air Force has started canvassing industry for interest in reactivating the external hardpoints on the B-1B fleet, with integration of non-nuclear hypersonic missiles likely to follow. A request for information (RFI) published on April 29 by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has proposed a relatively speedy acquisition for the reactivation.

Australia could receive four new Boeing CH-47F helicopters transferred from the U.S. Army inventory under a Foreign Military Sale, the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said on April 29. Australia has not previously publicized interest in new CH-47F orders, but the DSCA notification to Congress of the potential sale usually means the government has requested pricing and availability data. Credit: Boeing

The EU’s 2021-27 budget for space activities has received its final approval, from members of the European Parliament. At €14.8 billion ($18 billion), it is the largest space budget ever for the EU, up from €11 billion for 2014-20. But it falls short of the €16.2 billion the European Commission (EC) had proposed. The affects of the COVID-19 crisis have been partially blamed for the reduction. Credit: European Space Agency

Stratolaunch’s six-engine Roc carrier aircraft returned to the air on April 29, just more than two years after making its flight debut in 2019, with a 3-hr., 14-min. test sortie from the company’s Mojave Air & Space Port facility in California. Credit: Stratolaunch

After a brief pause to send the SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA last week, SpaceX on April 28 resumed launching its Starlink broadband constellation into low Earth orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket, back on the launchpad for a seventh mission, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:44 p.m. EDT. Perched inside the protective fairing on the rocket’s nose was the 25th batch of Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s fast-growing global, high-speed internet network. Credit: SpaceX webcast

With mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in aerospace and defense expected to ramp up this year in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, another private equity (PE) group is jumping into the market. Godspeed Capital Management, a lower middle-market private equity firm focused on defense and government services assets, on April 28 announced its launch and strategic partnership with East Rock Capital. Credit: Godspeed Capital Management

Last month, PCX Aerosystems, a Newington, Connecticut, aerospace supplier, announced it was buying nearby Senior Aerospace Connecticut (SAC). This month, Greenbriar Equity Group announced it will buy PCX from RFE Investment Partners. Credit: wikipedia

A newly formed company is planning to offer aggressor training services with Mirage 2000s that it hopes to receive by year’s end. The used aircraft purchase contract with an undisclosed country is in the final negotiations stages, according to Eric Sarrazin, Ares executive director of development. Ares was created by the merger of Secapem Defense Training Services (SDTS)—which has red air experience with the French Navy—and maintenance specialist Secaero. Credit: Patrick Aventurier/Getty Images

Northrop Grumman hit a proverbial home run with its first-quarter 2021, reporting outsized revenue and earnings, as well as providing a slightly higher forecast for the whole year. First-quarter sales grew 6% year-over-year to $9.2 billion from $8.6 billion. Net earnings increased 153% to $2.2 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) of $13.43 per diluted share, from $868 million and $5.15 in 2020. Credit: Northrop Grumman