“The workshop is really about narrowing down where on Mars would satisfy human requirements,” Jim Green, the agency’s planetary-science director, told reporters. “Mars is an enormous place."
South Korea has launched full-scale development of the LCH-LAH civil and military helicopter, signing contracts with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) that value the program at 1.6 trillion won ($1.44 billion) in non-recurring costs.
OneWeb Ltd. has signed contracts with European launch consortium Arianespace and Virgin Galactic to deploy a constellation of more than 600 low-orbiting Internet satellites.
Rather than depending on large and expensive programs that provide “standing capability,” the report says the U.K. needs to develop a research and industrial base that is able to respond rapidly to the specific demands presented by different campaigns as they arise.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) installed the command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) suite aboard the afloat forward staging base variant of the mobile landing platform (MLP 3) USNS Lewis B. Puller following recently completed acceptance trials.
While some in Congress, the military and certainly analytical circles continue to question the vulnerability, survivability and relevance of carrier strike groups in so-called anti-access, area denial (A2/AD) waters such as those off the mainland China coast, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report notes the U.S. Navy has operated and survived in such well-protected regions before.
The U.S. Navy can navigate more safely where traditional diplomacy might flounder, according to Vice Adm. James Foggo, commander of 6th Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO.
ANTONOV completed first of 14 modernized An-26 transports for Ukrainian defense ministry, modified for counterterrorism operations. GENERAL ATOMICS has $121m Pentagon contract for 19 Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicles, 19 satellite communications air data terminals; work to be performed in Powaw, CA, completed by Sept. 30, 2018.
Egypt has become the second export customer for Sagem’s AASM Hammer air-to-ground missile. The weapon will be used to arm Egypt’s new fleet of 24 Dassault Rafales ordered by Cairo in February. Sagem will deliver the first Hammers to Egypt by the end of 2016. The company says the order, announced at last week’s Paris air show, covers the three different versions of the weapon: the hybrid inertial/GPS guidance, inertial/GPS and terminal infrared guidance, and inertial/GPS plus laser terminal guidance variants.
A new optics technology that creates 3-D arrays of liquid crystals has allowed astronomers on Earth to resolve exoplanets orbiting a distant star by blocking the obscuring light of the star.
Cosmonaut Aydin Aimbetov will prep to become the third Kazakh to launch into space and the second to visit the International Space Station as he joins a Russian/European crew for a 10-day taxi mission to the orbiting science laboratory in early September.
The U.K. is planning to invest in a helmet mounted cueing system for its Panavia Tornado GR4 fighter bomber aircraft, even though they are due to exit service in four years.
Delays with the NextGen airspace modernization program should not be used as a reason for privatizing U.S. air traffic control, says Edward Bolton, head of the program, who is concerned the spin-off of ATC from the FAA could disrupt the progress now being made.
The presence of Chinese naval vessels, personnel, and equipment in the Spratly Island disputes has prompted concerns that could affect U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Lacking centralized Pentagon guidance on making reset liability estimates, the U.S. Marine Corps and Army are producing their own plans and estimates, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds – making it difficult to compare the programs.
URTHECAST will acquire Deimos, ELECNOR S.A.’s Earth Observation business, including Deimos-1 (launched 2009), Deimos-2 (launched 2014), and the Deimos Earth imagery global archive. BLACKSKY GLOBAL partnered with ALLSOURCE ANALYSIS to incorporate BlackSky’s high-resolution, rapid-revisit satellite imagery into AllSource’s multisource analytics and products for commercial and governmental customers.
The French air force has carried out evaluation firings of its Air-Sol Moyenne Portée-Amélioré (ASMP-A) air-to-surface missile to test the country’s nuclear capability readiness. The ramjet-powered missile forms part of France’s nuclear deterrent duo along with the country’s fleet of ballistic missile submarines. The weapon entered service in 2009. As part of the test, one ASMP-A was launched from a French air force Rafale on June 11 during a 4-hr. mission.
The transition is expected to go well for the original equipment manufacturer and Pentagon prime contractor, which turns 100 years old next year and may reach $100 billion in annual revenue around the same time.
NASA’s Radioisotope Power System Program is seeking information on Stirling radioisotope power systems capable of generating 100 to 500 watts of electricity for future robotic missions and possibly human deep-space activities spanning a decade or more.
Aerospace must embrace the technology sector or risk its business being disrupted by the fast pace of development in other industries, says Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders, speaking at the AIAA Aviation 2015 forum here June 22.
India is set to launch three disaster-monitoring satellites for a British firm in July, moving ahead with its ambition of securing a larger share of the annual international launch business.
