The Scaled Composites-developed SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane conducted a cold-flow pressurization test of the vehicle’s modified rocket motor system during a glide flight at Mojave, California, on Aug. 28. The flight, which followed release from the White-KnightTwo carrier aircraft, is a prelude to the imminent start of powered flight tests using a new plastic-based rocket motor fuel.
Even if information is publicly accessible, should it be deliberately circulated? That is the question surrounding the National Transportation Safety Board’s decision to oust UPS and its pilots union, the Independent Pilots Association (IPA), from the investigation into the August 2013 crash of UPS Flight 1354. On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Aug.
Flight controllers interrupted the intermittent release of 28 Earth-observing cubesats from the International Space Station’s (ISS) Japanese Kibo lab module following a spontaneous deployment of two of the small satellites. The commercial NanoRacks Small Satellite Deployer Mechanism was powered down after the Aug. 23 incident, in which two Planet Labs Flock 1B cubesats were spontaneously ejected. The satellites are being tracked and do not pose a collision threat to the ISS, NASA spokesman Dan Huot says.
A version of this article appears in the September 1 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. Retired NASA astronaut and USAF Col. Steven R. Nagel died Aug. 21 in Columbia, Missouri, reportedly after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.
The U.K. Royal Navy’s last Invincible-class aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, has been decommissioned. The 22,000-ton ship, which has been used as a helicopter carrier since the withdrawal of the Harrier GR9 fleet in 2010, was formally retired during a ceremony in Portsmouth on Aug. 28. The ship’s helicopter-carrying role will now be undertaken by HMS Ocean, which has just undergone a 15-month £65 million ($108 million) refit which included upgrades to the flight deck, hangar and aviation facilities. The U.K.
Gail Grimmett, senior vice president-New York for Delta Air Lines, has been elected to a two-year term on the board of directors of NYC & Co., the marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York.
Keith Williams, executive chairman of British Airways and an executive director of the International Consolidated Airlines Group, received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of West London’s London School of Hospitality and Tourism late last month.
Mike Coffield has been named a consultant with the Washington-based Livingston Group. He was head of government affairs for United Continental Holdings.
Ian Bartholomew has become interim managing director of U.K.-based Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd. He has been commercial director and succeeds Mick Adams, who has been named vice president-MRO for Etihad Airways.
