Sir Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and director of the Surrey Space Center at the University of Surrey, England, has received the International von Karman Wings Award for his contributions to aerospace, presented by the Aerospace Historical Society and the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Unsure about Europe's approach, NASA plans for a mission of its own.

NASA sees low risk in Boeing capsule, but corporate commitment is uncertain

Despite receiving the smallest NASA award, Sierra Nevada presses

USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dick Newton has been appointed executive VP of the Arlington, Va.-based Air Force Association, succeeding David T. “Buck” Buckwalter. Newton was assistant vice chief of staff/director of the air staff at USAF headquarters at the Pentagon.

Production of communications satellites is hampered by assembly of key component

NASA will spend $2.7 million on eight peer-reviewed research projects designed to advance the interagency National Robotics Initiative, set up by the Obama administration to promote U.S. robotics capabilities for the global marketplace. The projects will receive from $150,000 to $1 million for their work, which NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist is sponsoring as a way to push applications for “co-robotics” that can work with future human explorers on deep-space missions.

Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield is training to become the first representative of the Canadian Space Agency to command the ISS, with a two-month stint at the helm of the six-person orbiting science laboratory set to begin in March 2013. Hadfield, 53, has trained for two years with cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, 41, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, 52, for a Dec. 5 liftoff aboard the 33 Soyuz mission to the station for a six-month tour of orbital duty.