Airbus has ground tested a prototype mechanism to deploy an unmanned aircraft from the rear ramp of an Airbus A400M airlifter in flight as part of studies aimed at supporting the European Future Combat Air System.
The Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs office, which is leading the design of IRCPS and LRHW, awarded the contract to Lockheed’s Space division based in Littleton, Colorado, where 32% of the value of the contract will be performed.
The French Air and Space Force is conducting its first virtual exercise for military operations in space, a weeklong simulation of various threats against satellites to test the fledging space command’s reaction.
A notification sent to Congress by the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency confirmed that the U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of five P-8As to Germany with an estimated value of $1.77 billion, including sensors and logistics support.
After working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a robot arm for the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover, Motiv Space Systems is developing durable, multi-jointed limb also capable of functioning at the Moon’s south pole during long periods of darkness and extreme cold.
Responding to U.S. advances in in-space manufacturing, Airbus has been selected to study an orbital factory and potential demonstrator mission to establish a European capability to manufacture and assemble satellites in orbit.
Showing signs of its 30-plus years in Earth orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope resumed science operations late March 11, four days after slipping into safe mode due to a software error detected within the observatory’s main computer.
China successfully launched its new Long March 7A heavy rocket for the first time at 1:51 am local time on March 12 from the Wenchang launch site on Hainan island.
In another step in their growing space partnership, Russia and China have agreed to cooperate on an international lunar research station, potentially similar to the U.S. led-Artemis program’s Gateway project.
IAI and SIGN4L, an EDGE subsidiary that specializes in electronic warfare, plan to create system that can identify and intercept UAS with soft- and hard-kill technology, the companies said on March 11 in a joint news release.
Germany is set to receive its first C-130J Hercules airlifter in early 2022, which will join a new Franco-German air transport unit that will become operational this September with French C-130Js.
Security Forces guards, who were alerted by airmen in the passenger terminal, stopped the intruder on the flight line and arrested him more than 5 hr. after he was waved onto the base by another guard, the report said.
Scientists say they are pleased with the initial performance of SuperCam, a rock-vaporizing collection of lasers, high-tech cameras, spectrographs and microphones aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover.
NASA plans to try again on March 18 to fire up the four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on the Space Launch System core stage for a critical integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut flight in late 2021 or early 2022.
LiquidPiston is to study the application of its rotary diesel engine technology to hybrid-electric propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft and advanced air mobility vehicles under a contract from the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX innovation unit.
The delivery begins a series of government testing on the supersonic strategic bomber, which is now powered by Kuznetsov NK-30-2 turbofan engines, Rostec said.
A request for information published on March 10 by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center asked industry for a modernized airborne executive processor that can support a communications gateway system.
Nanoracks has proclaimed its benchmark Bishop airlock, which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in December, “open for business” and ready to commercially support science experiments, spacewalks and equipment transfers on the exterior of the orbiting science lab.
The Netherlands is temporarily taking over Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) air-policing duties for Belgium following the grounding of that country’s F-16 fighter fleet.
NASA has contracted with Axiom Space to acquire a seat aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 for a NASA astronaut to launch to the orbiting science lab on April 9.
The five-year contract for the UK’s Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group to maintain the Cameroon Air Force’s Lockheed Martin C-130H tactical transport aircraft has now been ratified.
The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office on March 9 awarded task orders worth a total of $385 million to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for four upcoming launches, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said in a statement.
