Irene Klotz is Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, based in Cape Canaveral. Before joining Aviation Week in 2017, Irene spent 25 years as a wire service reporter covering human and robotic spaceflight, commercial space, astronomy, science and technology for Reuters and United Press International. She also worked with Discovery Communications, Discovery News and was a founding member of Space.com.
Irene cut her teeth on the space beat at Florida Today newspaper, a business writer enchanted by the colorful entrepreneurs who wanted access to Air Force launch facilities and assets after commercial payloads were taken off the space shuttles following the 1986 Challenger accident. Commercial space remains the focus of her work, along with a keen interest in the search for life beyond Earth.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Irene is the 2014 recipient of the Harry Kolcum Memorial News and Communications Award, named in honor of the late Aviation Week managing editor and Cape Canaveral senior editor who was among Irene’s earliest mentors.
Problems with a helium isolation check valve on the upper stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket prompted NASA on April 9 to revise plans for a full tanking test and to delay a modified wet dress rehearsal to April 14.
The Axiom-1 mission kicks off a series of private astronaut flights to the International Space Station as part of an ongoing effort to expand commercial use and development of low Earth orbit
The largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history has seen Amazon sign contracts for a fleet of up to 83 heavy-lift launchers to send its Kuiper constellation into orbit.
