Defense and Space

The U.S. Energy Department has awarded three conceptual-design contracts for Moon-based nuclear-fission powerplants for NASA’s Artemis missions starting in the 2030s.

Italian flagship aerospace and defense company Leonardo is buying Rada Electronic Industries, a publicly traded Israeli defense electronics and military radar specialist, to fold under Leonardo’s U.S.-based DRS brand, the companies announced June 21.

Germany’s government has approved simplified procurement legislation enabling the country’s military to spend its recently approved €100 billion ($105 billion) special fund for 2022 more easily.

Israel Aerospace Industries says it has secured a “multimillion” deal to supply ELL-8222SB Scorpius-SP jammer pods to an unspecified Asian country.

Denmark is to retain its F-16s at a higher operational level and for a longer period than planned due to regional tensions prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Astronomers hope to find the universe’s first lights.

Technical issues that curtailed three Space Launch System tanking tests at the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in April appear to have been resolved, but a new issue stymied a fourth practice countdown underway on June 20.

A test of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply capsule’s ability to raise the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) while docked to it was aborted quickly June 20.

Canada will spend CAN$4.9 billion ($3.8 billion) over the next six years to upgrade the radar system that defends North America.

The U.S. Air Force has announced it wants to rapidly build and begin flying Boeing’s E-7A Wedgetail to replace its beleaguered E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet,

Globalstar’s FM-15 spare satellite successfully reached low-Earth orbit after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The U.S. Air Force is close to selecting a new helmet for its fixed-wing aircrew, based on studies that have identified problems with injuries and the integration of new technology on the current 1980s-designed model.

Boeing has redesigned components of the T-7A Red Hawk trainer aircraft after tests showed how a bird strike against the cockpit canopy would endanger the pilot.

China’s People’s Liberation Army has performed a ballistic-missile defense test, hitting a missile in its mid-course phase.

Space remains popular. But everything moves faster in a vacuum, including cash burn.

Trials will measure ability to handle applications such as a long-range artillery shell and a Mach 4 air-launched missile.

SpaceX kicked off a trio of launches planned for June 17-19 by sending another bank of Starlink satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 booster making its13th flight, a new company record.

Three months after emerging from so-called stealth mode, Impulse Space Propulsion, an in-orbit transfer services company founded by SpaceX co-founder Tom Mueller, has added $10 million to its initial fundraising. Lux Capital, a venture capital firm focused on emerging science and technology ventures that is familiar to aerospace startups, is investing in Impulse, bringing the latter’s total raised to date to $30 million.

Velo3D has unveiled the Sapphire XC 1MZ, a 3D printer that can make aerospace parts up to 1 m in height.

SpaceX is to loft the first of three new synthetic aperture radar satellites into orbit for the German Defense Ministry on June 18.

The International Space Station (ISS) executed a June 16 debris avoidance maneuver prompted by the predicted close approach of a fragment from last year’s Russian anti-satellite (ASAT) test.

NASA has reassigned astronaut Sunita Williams to the upcoming Crew Flight Test (CFT) of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, replacing Michael Fincke.

Slovakia has revealed the donation of helicopters to Ukraine as part of a new round of arms transfers.

The highly anticipated event took place on June 17 at Jiangnan Shipyard near Shanghai.

The flight, which marked the first time Roc had flown at altitudes required for effective launch trajectories of Stratolaunch’s Talon-A hypersonic test vehicle, lasted just over three hours.