Virgin Orbit completed a second dress rehearsal of its LauncherOne small satellite launch system on May 15, but plans to conduct some additional testing ahead of the vehicle’s orbital test flight, targeted for later this month.
The satellite operator Intelsat announced May 13 that it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring to free up liquidity and continue operations while it awaits repayment from the government from an auction of C-band spectrum.
The UK has launched the second phase of a £300 million ($366 million) challenge to develop a novel aviation system enabling safe operation of new types of aircraft including delivery drones, urban air taxis and electric regional aircraft.
House Republicans have stepped up a campaign spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to ground the drones that Chinese manufacturer DJI has loaned or donated to local police departments to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boeing and the UK Civil Aviation Authority are to work together on developing requirements for beyond-visual-line-of-sight unmanned flight operations as a steppingstone toward a future mobility ecosystem.
The Senate Armed Services Committee recently met to consider a bewildering decision by the FCC to OK the building of a low-power, ground-based network for 5G cellular and Internet of Things data services that opponents say could interfere with GPS receivers.
Listen to your experts, listen to your vehicle, and expect the unexpected. That’s the advice a panel of human spaceflight veterans has for SpaceX as the company prepares for its landmark Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month, which will restore the U.S. human orbital spaceflight capability lost after the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle.
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada expanded its “simplified package freighter” conversion program to its legacy Dash 8s, announcing Transport Canada approval and a launch customer.