Space

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have reached into their bag of tricks to keep NASA’s solar-propelled Dawn probe in good shape to enter orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, its second stop in the main asteroid belt.

Test-flight data for the Orion crew capsule heat shield will be important in the redesign process.

Canadian startup UrtheCast seeks to secure its future with revenues from imagery services and ISS commercial experiments.

Global demand for Earth-observation satellites booming, mainly from emerging countries lacking their own space programs.

Thanks to relatively abundant power, improved data links and a unique orbit, the ISS is an attractive vantage point for instruments designed to study Earth. Researchers are taking notice.

France seeks European partners for Musis imaging satellite program.

SpaceX has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force. In return, the service is vowing to increase the number of launches it plans to compete.

A preview of programs and issues to watch for during the first week of February, when the Pentagon makes its budget request to Congress.

Dueling global satellite Internet systems could be on the horizon if plans by SpaceX and OneWeb come to fruition.

Work on air-launch space access projects hits all-time high as test flights loom.

SpaceX’s near-term plans for U.S. government work have been thwarted by certification requirements.

Aviation Week editors discuss the reasons behind our selection of Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year for 2014.

Obama administration has made great progress in reforming export-control procedures, but benefits for the A&D industry are slow to materialize.

Aviation Week’s Person of the Year is the figure who had the most impact—for better or, in this case, worse—on aerospace and aviation over the year. In 2014, Putin’s actions roiled defense, space and commercial aviation.

Landing people on Mars is a goal on which there is widespread consensus.

ULA expects its first—and possibly only—Orbital Sciences Cygnus capsule to arrive in Florida late this summer for a launch targeted for the last quarter of the year. Orbital Sciences has an option for a second flight in 2016.

The three-year, $916 million SMAP mission will give weather forecasters in agricultural regions an early warning signal for drought and allow better near-term flood warnings.

Despite its failure to thwart NASA’s selection of Boeing and SpaceX for commercial crew vehicles, Sierra Nevada will proceed with development of Dream Chaser.

Aviation Week editors Graham Warwick and Guy Norris discuss with Joe Anselmo what the future looks like from the annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference.

UAE Space Agency delegation participants attend International Maks exhibition with a delegation from the Federal Russian Space Agency.

The UAE Space Agency have visited the Republic of Belarus to develop governmental and industrial relations within the space sector.

Can NASA avoid the mistakes of the past or will it finally avoid funding costly diversions to human space exploration?

SpaceX is the first company to undergo the new certification process with the goal of garnering work for its Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket.

The U.S. Air Force and SpaceX are now targeting midyear for full certification of the launch upstart’s Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket to loft the most precious Pentagon payloads into orbit.

After a disappointing 2013, Arianespace rebounds in 2014 and expects new opportunities in 2015.