Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Mar. 23

Indo-Pacom Nominee Supports Guam Defense System

The nominee to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (Indo-Pacom) says the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) is “foundational” for filling gaps in the region such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, long-range joint integrated fires and logistics under attack, but would not commit to the Guam Defense System (GDS) as his top priority. Credit: U.S. Navy

Delta II Takes Its Place In History

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) final Delta II rocket has secured its place in history as the newest member of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Rocket Garden, an outdoor exhibit of retired launch vehicles. Credit: ULA

Rocket Lab Launches Seven Satellites On Rideshare Electron

A Rocket Lab Electron booster has carried seven satellites on a rideshare mission into space from New Zealand. The lift-off from launch complex 1 at the company’s Mahia Peninsula complex on North Island at 11:30 a.m. local time on March 23 marked the 19th flight for the Electron.

Stratodynamics Flight Tests Turbulence-Detection Sensor

A microphone capable of detecting potentially hazardous clear-air turbulence at long range has been test flown on a balloon-launched unmanned stratospheric glider. Startup Stratodynamics is targeting the NASA-developed turbulence detection technology at the commercial aviation, urban air mobility and drone delivery sectors. Credit: Stratodynamics

Maintenance Firm Disappointed Over UK Hercules Fleet Retirement

UK aerospace maintenance firm Marshall Aerospace says it is “disappointed” about the UK government’s decision to retire its Lockheed C-130J Hercules fleet. The Cambridge-based company has been supporting the UK’s Hercules fleet since the country’s first C-130Ks were delivered in 1967. But the accelerated retirement of the C-130J fleet in 2023 looks set to impact Marshall’s operations in both Cambridge and Brize Norton, where the Royal Air Force C-130Js are based. Credit: USAF

Lockheed, Omnispace Team To Explore Space-Based 5G Business

Lockheed Martin and Omnispace, a startup targeting satellite-enabled 5G communications, on March 23 announced a “strategic interest agreement” to explore 5G business opportunities from space, and possibly creating the first dual-use commercial- and government-serving platform. Credit: Lockheed Martin

China Targets Mid-May For Mars Rover Landing

China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft—one of a trio of missions that successfully reached Mars in February—will dispatch a companion rover for a targeted mid-May landing on the planet’s surface, Chi Wang, director general of China’s National Space Science Center, said March 23. Credit: CNSA

Germany Freezes TLVS Plans, Opts For Patriot Upgrade

The future of the ground-based air defense system formerly known as the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) appears fragile after procurement of the system by the German government was put on ice. Berlin’s purchase of the Lockheed Martin/MBDA joint development—which was renamed TLVS in recognition of Germany’s Tactical Air Defense System, or Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem—was the subject of a review into ground-based air defense needs. Credit: MBDA / Bernhard Huber

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NASA Eyes April 8 For Mars Helicopter Flight Test

NASA’s newly arrived Perseverance rover is preparing to dispatch a small helicopter that accompanied it to Mars for the first demonstration of powered flight on another planet. The rover on March 21 released a debris shield that protected the 4-lb. helicopter, named Ingenuity, during the spacecraft’s Feb. 18 landing in Jezero Crater. Perseverance’s primary mission is to look for signs of past microbial life on Mars and cache samples for a return trip to Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

HASC Republicans Urging Biden To Fund Nuclear Modernization

Ahead of the fiscal 2022 budget rollout, 24 Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee are urging President Biden to fund nuclear triad modernization and homeland defense programs. Credit: U.S. Government

UK Plans Space-Based ISR Constellation

The UK is looking to develop a constellation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites as it expands its defense involvement in space. Air Vice Marshal Harv Smyth, head of the UK’s Space Directorate, says he plans to bring lessons learned from a series of technology demonstration programs to produce a “single meaningful ISR program.” It would build on work for the UK’s proposed Artemis constellation and on Oberon, a constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites. Credit: UK government

A&D-Aimed Metal 3D-Printing Startup Velo3D Goes Public

Metal 3D-printing startup Velo3D, which has targeted the aerospace and defense sector as a key customer, will become a publicly traded company in a reverse merger announced March 23 with blank-check company Jaws Spitfire Acquisition. Credit: Velo3D