LOS ANGELES — Scaled Composites is in the final run-up to the first powered flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital vehicle, following the completion of a “feather” braking maneuver during a drop test with the rocket installed. The 9-min. glide flight, which took place over Mojave, Calif., on April 3, included the first flight test with a nitrous vent. This was located in the pylon attaching the SS2 to the WhiteKnightTwo mothership that carried the vehicle aloft to its air-launch altitude.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Boeing is developing a family of three small satellites ranging from 4 to 1,000 kg (9 to 2,200 lb.) in size to whet the growing appetite of commercial and government customers interested in pursuing lower-cost space platforms.

HOUSTON — An eight-year, $120 million overhaul of the world’s largest cryogenically controlled thermal vacuum chamber will soon be completed to support NASA’s $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

PARIS — France’s council of ministers on April 3 appointed Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall to head French space agency CNES. France is the chief stakeholder in Europe’s Arianespace launch consortium, which operates the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, the Vega light launcher and a European variant of Russia’s Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou. Arianespace also manages commercial Soyuz launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan through its Russian Starsem affiliate.

HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station, working with NASA’s Mission Control, expect to complete a major overhaul of the orbiting science laboratory’s Ku-band communications system to enhance scientific research activities by the end of next week.

COLORADO AEROSPACE: Two U.S. lawmakers from space-industry-heavy Colorado are standing up their own “working group” on aerospace export control reforms. After being part of the advocacy effort for loosening satellite-related regulations, the lawmakers say their new group will continue to look for more changes “that will help U.S. companies export their products and technologies to international customers while still protecting our national security interests.” The group will provide recommendations to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet and Republican Rep.

Surrey Satellite Technology U.S. LLC, a subsidiary of small-satellite pioneer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the U.K., has opened a dedicated manufacturing and mission operations center in Colorado to handle its growing U.S. customer base. Located in Englewood, Colo., near Denver, the facility includes clean rooms for spacecraft and component manufacturing, customer-payload integration and electronics assembly. The center also houses engineering office space, test facilities and a control center for the spacecraft it produces.

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