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.
The six-seater New Shepard—flying with a full cabin for the first time—lifted off from Blue Origin’s spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, at 9 a.m. local time.
With efforts to troubleshoot an issue with a Space Launch System main engine controller ongoing, NASA is now targeting the rocket’s rollout to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B for mid-January—about two weeks later than previously planned—for a key prelaunch fueling test.
A new tool for astrophysicists to probe polarized X-ray light radiating from some of the highest energy objects in the universe is in orbit following an early morning launch by SpaceX from Kennedy Space Center.
