French arms exports were down sharply last year, from €6.5 billion ($8.7 billion) in 2011 to an estimated €5 billion in 2012, thanks to stiff competition from increasingly hungry U.S. contractors and technological gains in countries that until now posed little threat to the world's No. 4 defense exporter.

A massive U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next year will trigger a shift in Pentagon priorities and force structure, but do not expect any major changes for the Air Force's intelligence collection fleet. At least, not for now.

Lawmakers revisit long-standing feud over new approach to spaceflight

Military-space planners unclear whether smaller means cheaper

Water system success prompts discussion of potential services

There seems to be little hope of better defining U.S. space policy, given the current underfunded NASA vision of human expeditions to Mars and its ambitions to turn responsibility for low-Earth-orbit transportation over to commercial providers, according to members of an expert panel hosted by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Analysis of the Jan. 31 failure of a Sea Launch Zenit-3S with a big Boeing-built Intelsat communications satellite on board will center on thrust vector control in the Russian-built RD-171 main-stage engine, adding to the woes of Russia's mishap-plagued launch vehicle industry. Efforts by Sea Launch to regain financial momentum after emerging from bankruptcy also will be more difficult. The company has no additional firm missions on its manifest.

The company unit will leverage its Orion crew capsule work to help Sierra Nevada Corp. human-rate its Dream Chaser.