Defense and Space

Startup Firefly Aerospace says plans remain on schedule to attempt the first launch of its two-stage Alpha rocket from Vandenburg SFB, California, on Sept. 2 following a successful static fire test in mid-August.

COBHAM is considering possible combination with ULTRA ELECTRONICS to create single global defense electronics firm.

BOEING opened new offices in Jakarta and Hanoi to support growth objectives.

With support from a NASA Tipping Point technology development award, Mojave, California-based Masten is developing a suborbital aerospace testbed with an option for point-to-point payload transportation.

SpaceX is encountering shortfalls of liquid oxygen due to increased demand for oxygen by hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall plans to begin working now to incorporate the Space Development Agency (SDA) into the U.S. Space Force, a bureaucratic transition not scheduled until Oct. 1, 2022.

U.S. Space Command will now turn its focus to becoming fully operational and establishing a fully staffed and permanent headquarters.

A wave of newly minted publicly traded space companies is hitting the marketplace and sustaining investment confidence, hinting at more to come.

As rival SpaceX prepares for a tourist mission, Boeing is wrestling to pull off uncrewed flight test.

Russia has postponed its return to the Moon for almost a year.

Russia’s fleet of Kamov Ka-52 co-axial attack helicopters are being upgraded with new avionics and sensors by Russian Helicopters. The Ka-52M development was announced by the OEM on Aug. 24 during the Army 2021 Military Technical forum, held near Moscow Aug. 22-28.

The Russian military has signed an order with Kronstadt for an armed, 2-metric-ton unmanned aircraft system called Sirius, Russian news reports say.

A French Air Force MQ-9 Block 5 unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has performed an air strike for the first time as part of the seven-year-old Operation Barkhane in Africa, the Ministry of the Armed Forces announced on Aug. 24.

The continued operation of Russia’s segment of the International Space Station depends on the replacement of nearly 1,500 pieces of onboard equipment, according to a key advisory group for Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Leonardo and Northrop Grumman have agreed to a long-term pricing arrangement for the laser pointers/trackers used in the Northrop Grumman-made Common Infrared Countermeasures system used by the U.S. Army.

A pinched nerve in the neck of NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is the reason the agency has postponed his planned Aug. 24 spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

US DOD activated Stage I of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to assist with Afghanistan efforts, initially 18 aircraft from American (3), Atlas Air

Startup HyPoint has entered into a $6.5 million collaborative agreement with Piasecki Aircraft to develop a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

Taiwan’s defense ministry is considering spending as much as NT$200 billion ($7.1 billion) to accelerate mass production of indigenous long-range missile systems.

NASA plans to send a wide range of science and technology investigations to the International Space Station on an upcoming SpaceX resupply mission.

PteroDynamics has received a U.S. Navy contract to deliver prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft for a program to develop a capability to autonomously deliver cargo to and from ships at sea.

Boeing Australia is hoping to leverage Boeing’s U.S. military satellite technologies as it competes with Airbus and Lockheed Martin to win a $3.5 billion contract to build Australia's next-generation military satellite communications system.

New satellite constellations seeding the $1 trillion space economy

Virgin Orbit, the airborne small-satellite rocket launch upstart that announced its intent to go public Aug. 23, apparently will build and offer a fleet of Earth-observation and internet of things (IoT) satellites starting in 2023, according to investor materials.

NASA has postponed plans for an Aug. 24 spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) by U.S. and Japanese astronauts due to a “minor medical issue” involving NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.