Defense

Sierra Space is in discussions with the European Space Agency and German aerospace center DLR to extend existing partnerships covering crew access to the International Space Station to include new commercial vehicles.

A second stage motor for a hypersonic missile in development by the U.S. Army and Navy has completed a ground test, Lockheed Martin said on Aug. 26.

UAC says its Be-200 amphibious aircraft successfully completed firefighting operation in Greece, making >60 flights and dropping >5,000 tons of water

Startup Dawn Aerospace has completed initial test flights of a reusable suborbital spaceplane demonstrator in New Zealand.

BOMBARDIER delivered its fifth Global business jet to SAAB for conversion to GlobalEye AEW&C configuration; aircraft was delivered from its Toronto

The Royal Norwegian Air Force is preparing to equip a third search-and-rescue base with the Leonardo AW101 SAR Queen helicopter.

Several European countries have ended their Afghan evacuation operations ahead of the planned U.S. withdrawal from Kabul’s airport on Aug. 31.

Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard suborbital rocket successfully boosted 19 experiments to the fringes of space on Aug. 26.

The U.S. Navy has approved Northrop Grumman to launch production of the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile - Extended Range (AARGM-ER) for Boeing F/A-18E/Fs, EA-18Gs and Lockheed Martin F-35B/Cs.

U.S. Space Force, Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office have signed a “protected defense” strategic framework to align their space warfighting efforts.

Japanese military aircraft intercepted the Tengoen Technology TB-001 Scorpion medium-altitude, long-endurance platform on Aug. 24 as it flew over the East China Sea, and almost halfway to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands.

Russia has said that deliveries of Pantsir ground-based air defense systems to Myanmar are on track despite February’s military coup in the Southeast Asian country.

The Qatar Emiri Air Force named the Boeing F-15QA “Ababil” during a closed roll-out ceremony on Aug. 25 in St. Louis, the manufacturer announced.

Aircraft and satellites are being used in a research campaign to measure methane being released as the permafrost thaws in regions north of the Arctic Circle.

Startup Astroscale’s ELSA-d orbital debris removal demonstration has accomplished its first key goal, with the servicer satellite showing how it would capture a defunct spacecraft.

SpaceX seeks LOX; Missile warning force design; The start of Space Command; and A question of UAPs.

Production of the first all-new and modernized RS-25 engines for NASA’s Space Launch System has begun in Aerojet Rocketdyne’s newly expanded Los Angeles manufacturing facility.

Startup Firefly Aerospace says plans remain on schedule to attempt the first launch of its two-stage Alpha rocket from Vandenburg SFB, California, on Sept. 2 following a successful static fire test in mid-August.

COBHAM is considering possible combination with ULTRA ELECTRONICS to create single global defense electronics firm.

With support from a NASA Tipping Point technology development award, Mojave, California-based Masten is developing a suborbital aerospace testbed with an option for point-to-point payload transportation.

SpaceX is encountering shortfalls of liquid oxygen due to increased demand for oxygen by hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall plans to begin working now to incorporate the Space Development Agency (SDA) into the U.S. Space Force, a bureaucratic transition not scheduled until Oct. 1, 2022.

U.S. Space Command will now turn its focus to becoming fully operational and establishing a fully staffed and permanent headquarters.

A wave of newly minted publicly traded space companies is hitting the marketplace and sustaining investment confidence, hinting at more to come.