The U.S. Space Force’s 30th Space Wing and entities in California have entered into an agreement to develop a spaceport and boost commercial launch activity at Vandenberg AFB on the state’s Pacific coast.
The planned ramp-up in flight test activity is intended to prepare the Common Hypersonic Glide Body to transition into an operational weapon system within three years.
The U.S. Army decided in March to concentrate resources on developing the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, which shares the Common Hypersonic Glide Body with the Navy’s submarine-launched Conventional Prompt Strike missile.
Teledyne Technologies, a smaller but significant U.S. defense contractor, is unveiling a new British-oriented missiles and explosives business unit, Teledyne Energetics UK, representing the latest move in a push for international diversification.
SpaceX will fly a pair of SES’s new satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2022, with an option for a second flight for an undisclosed third satellite. ULA will launch another two SES spacecraft on an Atlas V, also in 2022, SES announced.
A prototype Mars-class reusable spaceship developed by SpaceX took a nearly 500-ft (150 m) hop off a launch stand near Brownsville, Texas, on Aug. 4, marking the company’s first successful Starship test flight in a year.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken praised the NASA/SpaceX team behind their test flight and expressed hope the public/private partnership continues to thrive.
As it incorporates lessons learned from the abbreviated debut flight of its LauncherOne small satellite rocket, Virgin Orbit said Aug. 3 it is planning for a second demonstration mission before year’s end, with NASA agreeing to use the launch to put 11 experimental cubesats into orbit.
Bartolomeo, an external platform developed to commercially support scientific research and technology development payloads outside the International Space Station Space (ISS), should be ready to host its first projects by mid-2021, according to developer Airbus Defense and Space.
Triumph Group has announced a significant step forward in shedding some aerostructures businesses, revealing a definitive agreement to sell its composites operations to private equity investor Arlington Capital Partners.
Lockheed Martin has chosen a proposed new variant of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to compete for the sea-based Regional Glide Phase Weapon prototyping program.
Small satellite launcher ABL Space Systems has disclosed around $90 million in new defense contracts plus investments from Lockheed Martin and venture capitalists, powering the startup through a three-launch demonstration of the RS1 launch vehicle and GS0 deployable launch system early next year, the company said Aug. 3.
Collins Aerospace is on the brink of closing a deal with its first international customer for a next-generation air combat training device that the U.S. Navy and Air Force will use for the F-35.
Deliveries of the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik (Hunter) unmanned combat air vehicle to the Russian military will start in 2024, the head of Russia’s United Aircraft Corp., Yury Slyusar, told President Vladimir Putin at an Aug. 3 meeting.
Once a mission prioritized mostly by the U.S. Army and Navy, the U.S. Air Force is now seeking to experiment with low-cost options to intercept cruise missiles, potentially expanding an arsenal that today consists solely of the relatively high-cost and inventory-limited AIM-120C missile
