Defense

Outside experts advising NASA on safety will recommend that the agency reconsider a decision to drop an integrated flight test of the Orion crew capsule’s launch abort system.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
This year shaped up as a momentous one for planetary science, especially for discovery in the outer Solar System, and NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno mission promises to help make 2016 memorable as well.
Defense

By Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio
Northrop hints that if its plan prevails final assembly will occupy the same Building 401 hangar at Palmdale’s Plant 42 site used for the construction of the B-2 stealth bomber in the 1980s and 1990s.
Defense

The Proton launch vehicle lifted off from Pad 81 at 3:17 a.m. local time, marking the seventh Proton launch of 2015.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
A detailed study of more than 900 unmanned-aircraft sightings reported to the FAA by pilots and air traffic controllers has concluded that 90 involved encounters with commercial aircraft close enough to meet the agency’s definition of a near midair collision.
Defense

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with O3b Networks to produce eight Ka-band communications satellites that will expand the fleet operator’s existing constellation of 12 Thales-built spacecraft by early 2018.
Defense

By Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio
Northrop Grumman will begin wind tunnel tests next month of a tail-sitting vertical take-off and landing UAV capable of operating from smaller U.S. Navy warships.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio, Guy Norris
Northrop Grumman provided a first glimpse of its T-X trainer offering to a group of reporters Dec. 10 in Palmdale, California. It plans to roll out the demonstrator in Mojave in January.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Jails fear UAV smuggling; France leads UAV smallsat launcher; Darpa aims for ubiquitous lidar; Roke takes cellular to high altitude; Airbus Perlan glider moves to new test phase.
Aerospace

By Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio
Amid signs of growing U.S. Air Force and Navy interest in a sixth-generation combat aircraft, Northrop Grumman is accelerating studies of key technologies for directed energy weapons and thermal management, which it says will be fundamental to future capability.
Defense

By Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio
PALMDALE -- Amid signs of growing U.S. Air Force and Navy interest in a sixth-generation combat aircraft, Northrop Grumman is accelerating studies of key technologies for directed energy weapons and thermal management, which it says will be fundamental to future capability.
Defense

As the U.S. Navy gets down to developing its future cruiser or large surface combatant, the service wants to design and build a ship that can be upgraded to face new threats in a way that does not mean ripping apart most of the ship, as it does with the current fleet.
Defense

By Jay Menon
Pakistan has successfully conducted a test flight of the Shaheen-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which has a maximum range of 2,750 km.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons is seeking information on systems that would provide protection against UAVs.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
Staffing of the International Space Station temporarily dropped from six to three people on Dec. 11, as NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko descended to Earth.
Defense

In the first live-fire intercept test of Aegis Ashore, contractor Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency successfully destroyed a ballistic missile target at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
Defense

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar reiterated their countries’ strong bonds earlier this month during the minister’s visit to the Pentagon.
Defense

When it comes to modernizing a U.S. Navy cruiser – even in phases – getting the ship ready is a mission unto itself.
Defense

The U.S. export credit agency is back but needs a board of directors. Meanwhile, the fight continues over Russian RD-180 rocket engines.
Defense

Congressional restrictions on U.S. space activities have left the European Space Agency in a better position to guide international space cooperation, ESA’s new director general says.
Defense

France ordered its third MQ-9 Reaper system on Dec. 7, a three-UAV acquisition to be delivered in 2019.
Defense

System-performance improvements should allow space-based ADS-B provider Aireon to offer ANSPs with both terrestrial and oceanic ADS-B surveillance capabilities.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Semiconductor technology that would eliminate bulky optical telescopes and enable lightweight, low-cost light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors for foliage penetration, collision avoidance, robotic vision and optical communications is to be developed under a new five-year, $58 million Darpa program.
Defense

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California, earlier this month hosted a live-fire test of the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
The U.K.’s unmanned combat air vehicle technology demonstrator, Taranis, has completed a third round of flight trials.
Defense