Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Feb. 09

Northrop Grumman has confirmed plans to participate in U.S. Air Force studies for the Advanced Air Refueling (AAR) program, which seeks to deliver a stealthy and possibly autonomous tanker in the next decade. Northrop will engage in an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for the AAR program by Air Mobility Command, which is scheduled to begin in 2022, said Richard Sullivan, the company’s vice president for program management.

Cubic, a military training and C4ISR services specialist, will be taken private in a $2.8 billion takeover by Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management.

British Airways (BA) plans to invest in a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant to be built in the U.S. and anticipates receiving 7,500 metric tonnes a year of low-carbon jet fuel from the facility beginning at the end of 2022. BA joins Canadian energy company Suncor and Japanese trading house Mitsui in investing in LanzaJet, the sustainable aviation fuel producer launched in May 2020 by carbon recycling company LanzaTech. All Nippon Airways (ANA) is also participating in LanzaJet. Credit: LanzaJet

The FAA has approved the first Re-entry Site Operator License for the Launch and Landing Facility in Titusville Florida, clearing the way for future commercial space operators to horizontally land spacecraft. The approval of the five-year license on Jan. 19 received little notice until it was hailed three weeks later by Sierra Nevada Corp, which plans to use the facility in 2022 upon the return of the Dream Chaser from a scheduled resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The U.S. Navy is adding 16 refurbished Harpoon Block IC missiles to its inventory to expand the anti-ship missile capacity of its Los Angeles-class submarine fleet. Boeing’s $11 million Jan. 22 contract award from the Navy is for 16 refurbished cruise missiles and four All-Up Round encapsulated missiles. Credit: Avriette

Russia’s MS-15 cargo capsule, filled with trash and discarded equipment, departed the International Space Station (ISS) early Feb. 9 for a destructive re-entry into the South Pacific Ocean. The capsule launched with a 5,600-lb. cargo on July 23, 2020, to carry out a successful automated docking with the ISS Russian segment. Credit: NASA

Turkey will send a probe to make a hard landing on the Moon in 2023 as part of celebrations of the country’s centenary, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared. The moonshot is to be followed by a second probe planned to make a soft landing on the lunar surface in 2028. They are part of an ambitious new national space program announced by Erdogan on Feb. 9. Credit: NASA

Telesat has awarded a $3 billion contact to Thales Alenia Space to build its planned 298-member low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation, named Lightspeed. Unlike SpaceX’s direct-to-consumer Starlink service, currently in public beta trials, Lightspeed is designed to supply new and existing Telesat customers, including mobile network operators, telecommunication companies and internet service providers, with fiber-like broadband connectivity and cellphone tower links. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

Spatial disorientation of the pilot led to the fatal crash of a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter in hilly terrain northwest of Los Angeles in January 2020 that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight others, the NTSB has found. The pilot’s decision to continue flying the helicopter under visual flight rules (VFR) into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) “resulted in spatial disorientation and loss of control,” the NTSB announced in a probable cause finding on Feb. 9. Credit: NTSB

Swarm, a low-cost satellite communications network company selling data from space for less than the cost of a Netflix subscription, is now available for commercial use. The company has 81 tiny satellites in orbit and plans to complete a constellation of 150 by the end of the summer. Credit: Swarm

Black Hawk

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) Hope spacecraft completed a 27-min. braking burn to put itself into orbit on Feb. 9, earning the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a place in history as the first Arab nation to successfully reach the red planet. Credit: MBRSC

Two projects have been announced in the Netherlands with the goal of producing carbon-neutral synthetic jet fuel using renewable energy. The Zenid project led by Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM) wants to build a demonstration plant producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere. Meanwhile, Amsterdam-based startup Synkero aims to develop a commercial plant producing SAF from green hydrogen and CO2. Credit: Climeworks