Defense and Space

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has completed its 54th flight on Mars, performing a 25-sec. up-and-down hop on the surface.

Luna-25, the first Russian lunar exploration mission in almost 50 years, is bound for the Moon.

German satellite launcher developer Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has secured €30 million ($32.8 million) from global investment firm KKR.

The second payment for the Rafales brings the total confirmed aircraft for Indonesia to 24, adding to the six fighters that were paid for in September 2022.

The long-awaited report into the loss of F-35B ZM152 makes 46 recommendations to the joint Royal Navy-Royal Air Force organization operating the F-35.

The differentiator in military programs is shifting from platforms to software. Listen in to hear how this change is transforming industry.

Buying counter-UAS as a service is part of the U.S. Army’s plan for more directed energy to target large numbers of attacking drones.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Poland has launched negotiations to order 22 Leonardo AW101 battlefield helicopters.

Despite developing Parkinson’s disease, one of Virgin Galactic’s first customers boarded the company’s VSS Unity spaceship for a suborbital ride.

The U.S. Army is now the acquisition executive for the large-scale plan to defend Guam from air and missile threats.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to launch the two prototype satellites for its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor system later this year.

The THAAD and PAC-3 MSE integration was a long, multiyear effort that was fielded and accepted earlier this year.

Using inputs from the fledging HAPS industry, Frontex believes HAPS would be useful for Earth observation.

QinetiQ is adapting the four-engine airliner to become an Airborne Technology Demonstrator to support radar and sensor integration work for future programs.

Baykar’s Akinci drone as well as its associated weapons and sensors will be produced in Saudi Arabia under a new deal estimated at roughly $3 billion.

Lunar Vertex (LVx) is a joint lander and rover payload combination that will land at Reiner Gamma on the lunar nearside.

Two Russian cosmonauts installed three orbital debris shields to the exterior of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Russian segment Rassvet.

The digital transfer to the aircraft from the B-2’s Advanced Communications ground station automates a function that required crews to manually input the data.

SpaceX and NASA are meeting to discuss options for Artemis III’s return to the lunar surface.

The mission date is to be announced at a later date, and the name of the astronaut awaits approval by NASA and the other ISS partners.

NASA has awarded Advanced Space two new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 contracts.

Warsaw expects delivery of all four Polish Navy Leonardo AW101s—purchased in a deal worth €380 million ($427 million)—by the end of this year.

The rotary-wing industry model is fracturing, and a much smaller U.S. civil rotorcraft industry is likely as civil and military requirements diverge.

The linkup between Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Australia’s Hypersonix Launch Systems is the latest in Hypersonix’s growth into the U.S. market.