THALES ALENIA SPACE won bid to build Nilesat-301 geostationary communications satellite for Egyptian operator NILESAT, based on Spacebus 4000-B2 platform; launch in 2022.
As the U.S. Air Force pursues the idea of a new “Century Series” of fighter aircraft, it is promoting a similar effort for satellites in which the service would create a spacecraft bus with common components and processes that can be customized for individual missions
“We’re using the same philosophy, some of the same expertise, lessons learned, what worked, what didn’t and applying that to the public shipyards,” says Hondo Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
A U.S. district court in Washington has unsealed a six-year-old False Claims whistleblower case against Navistar International, a key provider of Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected ground vehicles.
The DOD has released all but the last $8.5 million of the $250 million military assistance package appropriated for Ukraine, part of $391 million in withheld aid that spawned the ongoing impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, a Pentagon official said on Dec. 4.
AeroVironment has added to its high-altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) revenue, executives said Dec. 3, bringing the UAV pioneer’s total to $149 million related to HAPS Mobile, a joint venture with Japanese investor SoftBank.
Leidos, a heavyweight government services provider, has throttled up its rivalry with defense primes L3Harris Technologies and Raytheon for providing support work to the FAA.
Spirit AeroSystems has completed its first integration of the 767 forward fuselage section, which doubles its labor content on the Boeing platform used as freighters and for the U.S. Air Force KC-46 tanker.
A legal dispute between Lockheed Martin and the U.S. government that held up development of a key F-35 testing system is not currently delaying the effort, says the manufacturer.
The U.S. Air Force’s Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization Payload can transition to the manufacturing phase after successfully completing a critical design review.
The Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return mission spacecraft entered the full-scale ion propulsion cruise phase of its return to Earth from Ryugu as planned late Dec. 2 U.S. time, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
The introduction of delivery service by drones is facing a challenge of human acceptance, according to surveys by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided publicly released imagery of the Indian Space Research Organization’s Vikram lander crash site and associated debris after the spacecraft attempted an automated soft landing at the Moon’s south pole nearly two months ago.
BAE Systems has received a DARPA contract to develop a mission planning system that will enable users to call on sensors and weapons on other platforms and in other operational domains to attack pop-up targets.
USAF researchers are setting up a $490 million, six-year program to rapidly develop, prototype, demo and transition multiple tech to counter small, commercial UAS.
Germany’s MTU and France’s Safran say they have reached accords on the development of an engine for the fighter aircraft at the heart of the trinational European Future Combat Air System.
The Air Force awarded a $652 million contract to Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control unit for ARRW in August 2018, but that amount was a placeholder as the negotiators hammered out the definirized terms.
Along with the acquisition of the five aircraft from surplus Portuguese stocks, the package also includes a modernization of the existing fleet mission computer system.
