A s Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 5 rocket gains traction in the commercial launch market, Russia’s threat to restrict sales of its RD-180 engine could get in the way.
NASA’s Armstrong (formerly Dryden) Flight Research Center will continue to build additional science and technology research work into its portfolio as it looks to host additional “X-Planes,” possibly including a supersonic commercial demonstrator, later this decade. Despite a continuing budget shortfall for aeronautics work, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says Armstrong will play a central role in the agency’s narrowed strategic focus on six research areas.
Next month, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will try for a third time in four years to achieve an intercept in what was billed six years ago as one of the most challenging trials of the troubled Boeing Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The trial, designed to simulate a North Korean ballistic missile attack, will aim for head-on intercept between an upgraded Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (called the CE-2). The Kill Vehicle was originally tested in January 2010 and then again in December of that year, says Roger Krone, president of Boeing Network and Space Systems.
