Space

Sierra Nevada Corp. will join incumbents Orbital ATK and SpaceX.

The European Space Agency is expected to ask member states next December for a three-year portion of financing valued at several hundred million euros to fund the agency’s continued participation in the NASA-led International Space Station.

Ahead of new budget talks in late 2016, German Aerospace Center DLR and the European Space Agency are evaluating the cost of continuing support for the International Space Station beyond 2020, even as the other four space station partners pledge to fund the orbiting science lab to 2024.

Last year’s back-to-back station-cargo launch failures have not dimmed growing commercial interest in station research.

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are negotiating the final details of a public-private “tipping-point” partnership designed to produce a low-cost propulsion system for CubeSats that uses non-toxic “green” propellant in lieu of hydrazine.

A top priority for the Indian space agency is to complete the launch of its seven-satellite regional navigation constellation.

To avoid being marginalized, the U.S. space community needs to make key issues part of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The European launch consortium, which today lifts more than half of the world’s communications satellites, says the recent successful recovery of a Falcon 9 core stage is only the first step for SpaceX in reusing the already-low-cost rocket.

As India moves into the new year, it plans a shift toward launching bigger space missions ranging from larger satellites aboard heavy-lift launchers to improved Earth observation spacecraft.

From the commercial-aircraft ramp-up and small-UAV explosion to U.S. defense budget pressures and Europe’s response to Russian aggression, 2016 will be a dynamic year for the aerospace and defense industry.

Tiny ADS-B for UAVs; better materials, lighter diesels; NASA seeks clean-sheet thinking on 2035 airspace; Basque partners combine additive and subtractive

SpaceX is celebrating the first successful touchdown on land of an orbital-class booster, the first step toward a potential paradigm shift in easing human access to space.

Smaller, more capable satellites enter satcom market as U.S. military demand for new spacecraft stalls.

In the next 10 years, as major spacefaring nations renew their fleets, the space-launch sector will be molded by the growing popularity of small satellites, increasing commercialization of space transportation, reusable launch vehicles and manned space programs.

Space agencies around the world will spend 2016 doing the spade work for deep-space missions later on.

Government and A&D contractors need to reach out to entrepreneurs, take more risks, be more creative.

Expanded Tables Online Download expanded specifications on in-production and under-development launch vehicles and search more than 3,100 other systems at AviationWeek.com/specs

Success in recovering the Falcon 9 first stage marks a major step toward the long-sought dream of reusable commercial space launchers.

Saab ships laminar wing Section as Airbus A340-300 moves toward 2017 flight tests; NASA fires 3-D-sprinted rocket motor; Clean Sky tests of advanced business-jet design; Sea-Tac RFP for biofuel study; U.K. pushes out R&D commitment to 2026.

The outcomes of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space-industry ambitions may lie in the future, but he definitely moved the needle in 2015.

Shelby vs. McCain continues. NASA gains $1 billion. And international travelers to U.S. face new restrictions.

Through partnerships and investments, defense primes and OEMs are increasingly turning the page away from the old playbook of acquiring and subsuming new technology.

France’s defense ministry will begin work on three new major space-system developments in the coming year, including an international collaboration with Germany in the area of remote sensing and an operational follow-on to the Elisa signals-intelligence demo.

2015 could well turn up in the history books as the year humankind finally realized it could be a spacefairing species, and started reaping the benefits.

UP Aerospace takes its experience building and operating low-cost suborbital sounding rockets and applies it to a dedicated launch vehicle for tiny cubesats.