As Virgin Orbit gears up for the start of operational missions following its successful Jan. 17 demonstration flight, the California-based space company has revealed it has been selected to launch the first military satellite for the Netherlands.
NASA and Boeing are now targeting March 25 for the launch of an uncrewed CST-100 Starliner on the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the International Space Station—four days earlier than previously planned.
A team headed by Spirit Aerosystems will lead the development and demonstration of a low-cost unmanned combat aircraft that could go on to operate as a loyal wingman for the UK’s Typhoon, F-35, and later Tempest manned fighters.
The Pentagon made budgetary gains under former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, and now President Joe Biden’s newly installed defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, must lead the military through an anticipated era of flat funding.
Leading Tier 1 supplier Spirit AeroSystems and the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) have inaugurated a new kind of federally backed, discounted-rate lending for aerospace suppliers—beginning with a $40 million transaction based on receivables from Spirit’s lower-tier providers.
Siemens Digital Industries Software offers a complete aerostructure simulation solution that enables traceable data and results while maintaining consistent global process control.
Archer said the agreement supports its vision of being a leader in the first wave of urban air mobility providers with the goal of beginning passenger services by 2024.
FAA and NASA have pledged to coordinate their standards and to work together on commercial space launch and re-entry, point-to-point suborbital transportation, spaceports, airspace design and a host of other issues now that the era of commercially licensed human spaceflight has begun.
Satisfied with the Space Launch System’s recent Wet Dress Rehearsal, NASA is looking to conduct the first simultaneous ground test firing of the heavy rocket’s four RS-25 engines as early as Jan. 17.
For the U.S. Defense Department, however, the next 12 months will form a long-awaited crucible of testing on several of the pillars of the weapon systems and rapid acquisition processes introduced by the Trump administration.
The Japanese Defense Ministry on Dec. 18 formally announced it has selected Lockheed Martin to provide “system integration support” to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in developing its F-X fighter.