Defense

NASA is allocating $19.3 million for 21 studies on the physical and psychological issues astronauts will face as the agency prepares to return to the Moon’s surface in 2024 and advance to Mars in the 2030s.

Vietnam Military Aviation

Conferences and events for professionals in the aerospace & defense community.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

France to replace Rafales; SDA awards tracking layer contracts; Russian airlifter delayed; and Boeing WGS clears PDR.

As NASA continues feasibility studies into nuclear propulsion for deep space missions, DARPA has awarded an initial contract to help pave the way toward possible orbital tests of a nuclear-powered rocket for U.S. military use in and around cislunar space.

This webinar took place October 9, 2020. As part of Aviation Week’s coverage of this year’s International Astronautical Congress and in recognition of

The U.S. Marine Corps and Sikorsky are close to an agreement for six CH-53K Lot 4 helicopters and may seal the deal by the end of the month.

Multiple Air Launched Effects vehicles were recovered in flight by an octorotor during the Project Convergence 20 demonstration.

The Pentagon has distributed its first-ever data strategy, which is integral for the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept that will link military equipment across the future battlefield.

There are several intriguing scientific findings among a half-dozen research efforts published just ahead of the NASA Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission’s scheduled Oct. 20 touchdown on Bennu.

For more information about the 2020 Forecast and other Aviation Week data products, please see: http://pages.aviationweek.com/Forecasts

France has begun retiring the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker as it modernizes its aerial refueling capacity around the Airbus A330 Phenix Multi-Role Tanker Transport.

NATO is to start engaging with industry in early 2021 as European members begin to mull their medium-rotorcraft needs for the 2040s.

LUXEMBOURG took delivery of its first A400M for binational operations with Belgium, which has ordered seven.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Already on a tight schedule to deliver community-acceptance data to regulators, NASA has revealed that COVID-19 challenges have pushed the first

The U.S. Air Force had already run Kubernetes in ground-based aircraft tests, but the Sept. 22 flight aboard a U-2S marked a new landmark in advanced software applications for military aircraft.

An electronic-intelligence aircraft converted from a Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) C-2 airlifter prototype moved to a tactics development unit on Oct. 1, bringing new but undisclosed signals-interception capabilities closer to operation for Japan.

Honeywell said Oct. 7 it acquired privately held Rocky Research, a Boulder City, Nevada-based specialist in thermal, energy and power management solutions, and will add the boutique to its Honeywell Aerospace division.

SpaceX is poised to take over ISS crew rotation missions, with Boeing to follow next year.

If these come true, we will have a much different jetliner supply chain architecture by the mid-2020s.

The U.S. military's interest in adapting a space launcher for the cargo resupply mission is entering a new phase, with a formal collaboration proposed with SpaceX for a proof of principle demonstration next year.

Astronics Corp. has announced FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) approval of its Max-Viz 1400 enhanced vision system installation on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aerial firefighting tanker.

Momentus will become the next publicly traded new-space venture in early 2021, and the first self-described space infrastructure, upon closure of a deal announced Oct. 7 for blank-check company Stable Road Acquisition to buy the satellite orbit-mover startup.