No matter how vital space power becomes to the U.S., if it is relegated to a supporting role inside the Air Force, or any other service or agency, it will always receive short shrift.

For SpaceX, 100-flight reuse Falcon 9s, providing a hundredfold in savings, is on the company’s active agenda.

Aviation Week has won top honors in the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards, the business-to-business media equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes.

How the F-15 proposal differs from failed attempts to retire aircraft; another request for regulations; a burning disagreement, and F-35 JPO chief retiring.

Space is the only domain where platforms cannot be routinely serviced, repaired and upgraded to keep them operating and up to date with technology advances. Two planned demos, one by NASA and one by DARPA, could change that.

The $3.2 billion U.S./European Cassini probe is scheduled to drop into Saturn’s cloudy atmosphere on Sept. 15, bringing down the curtain on a 13-year tour of a planetary system with so many moving parts it almost rivals the Solar System in complexity.

As the nation’s space mission grows, does the service have enough clout to manage it all?

The probe’s mission will finish with a spectacular plunge into Saturn’s clouds, after a wistful look back at our “pale blue dot.”