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.
As he settles into his new job as NASA administrator, former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson took an early step into the agency’s international arena, with a stern warning to China—and any other country or entity—that flies rockets without the means to control them, such as what happened with China’s most recent Long March 5B booster.
With its fourth flight test on Mars, NASA is transitioning its Ingenuity technology demonstration project into an extended 30-day mission to develop and test operations for future science rotorcraft.
