Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti teamed up for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on July 21 to advance activation of the 37-ft.-long, multi-jointed European Robotic Arm. The arm was launched as part of the Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory module in July 2021.
The Power Units of Rolls-Royce and Safran are partnering to develop an engine for the subsonic cruise missile element of the Franco-British Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program.
Leonardo Helicopters has been awarded a £60 million ($71.7 million) contract to build and fly an uncrewed rotary-wing aerial system technology demonstrator.
The U.S. Air Force is ruling out taking the British route of acquiring used Boeing 737 business jets to quickly convert to its new E-7A Wedgetail standard and requiring new build aircraft, though the company says it could accelerate its military line to speed up the program if there is enough demand.
Now that the service has collected and digested industry feedback, USAF Secretary Frank Kendall says he has a clearer idea of what is possible and what programs are realistic in the near term.
Millennium Space Systems says it has demonstrated several new technologies–including new avionics, communications devices, onboard processing of data and radio-frequency crosslinks–with a three-satellite constellation called RED-EYE that showcases the strength of small satellites.
NASA has targeted three potential launch dates for Artemis I, a multiweek uncrewed first test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on a mission around the Moon and back to Earth.
An agreement must be reached between Airbus and Dassault Aviation in the coming weeks on the Franco-German-Spanish Future Air Combat System program or Dassault will go ahead with an unspecified Plan B, says the company’s chairman and CEO, Eric Trappier.
NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an observatory that is to join the James Webb Space Telescope and aging Hubble Space Telescope in studies of exoplanets and the deepest reaches of the universe.
The two-phase Gambit program will start with an 18-month preliminary design phase and end with an 18-month ground test of a full-scale propulsion system in flight conditions.
