Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Oct, 21

The Philippines defense department will decide in December on the type of multi-role fighter (MRF) aircraft to be purchased by the air force, its chief says.

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Lithuania has become the latest Eastern European country to select the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk for its rotary-wing requirements.

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Longstanding planetary protection practices should be re-evaluated and updated regularly given the growing interest in international and commercial planetary exploration, advances in astrobiology and new small spacecraft technologies, according to a NASA-sponsored study.

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The final prelaunch deployment of the InSight rover’s solar panels. Implementation of Planetary Protection measures can be seen through the gowning, taping and hardware handling during the solar panels’ final testing: NASA

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German urban air taxi developer Volocopter has shown off its vision for an urban air mobility terminal.

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Raytheon has integrated the AirMap UAS monitoring application on a working prototype of its Multi-platform ATC Rehosting Solution for air traffic control.

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“In the same way we opened access to low Earth orbit for smallsats, Rocket Lab is poised to become the dedicated ride to the Moon and beyond for small satellites,” founder and CEO Peter Beck says. 

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