Defense and Space

Space tourism company makes room for experiments and prototypes.

Lockheed Martin has opened a 20,000-ft.2 small satellite assembly facility at its Waterton campus in Littleton, Colorado.

Amazon plans to take advantage of an earlier opportunity to fly a pair of test satellites for its Kuiper broadband constellation.

Redesigning and testing part of the parachute system on the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will delay a long-awaited crew flight test (CFT) until March 2024 at the earliest.

Pale Blue has won a contract to provide its Resitojet water-vapor based propulsion system for a pair of 6U cubesats.

Instead of shooting down the next buoyant airspace intruder, DARPA wants to find a way to haul high-altitude balloons down safely from up to 75,000 ft.

The company announced Aug. 7 that all elements of its NGI have been validated ahead of another PDR for the entire all-up round.

Turkish uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) manufacturer Baykar is to undertake research and development activities in Pakistan under a new project led by the Pakistan Air Force.

The Army’s Program Executive Office-Soldier last month announced creation of the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program.

The UK has provided Ukraine with a new rapidly developed air defense capability based on MBDA’s Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Asraam).

Turkish Baykar-developed UAS and their associated weapons and sensors will be produced in Saudi Arabia under new export agreements between Ankara and Riyadh.

The Japan Air Self Defense Force's Kawasaki C-2 airlifter could carry long-range anti-surface missiles that ignite after being air dropped.

SpaceX has hot fired the engines of its next Super Heavy booster as it prepared for a second flight test of an integrated Starship-Super Heavy vehicle.

A new U.S. effort to prove technology for reusable hypersonic flight is inching forward as government scientists seek information on industry-funded projects.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft reached lunar orbit on Aug. 5, setting the stage for a landing attempt on the Moon's south pole later this month.

The resumption of communications through NASA’s Deep Space Network follows a “shout” command transmitted to the probe by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA has reassigned astronaut Jeannette Epps, who has been awaiting a spaceflight since joining the astronaut corps in 2009, to the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin are beginning the second phase of yearly iterative updates to the F-22 fleet.

The next increment of OASuW is the Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive (HALO) weapon, first disclosed in a budget request in 2022 with prototypes expected this year.

The Zeus, a low-cost motor, designed to power Kratos’ Erinyes and Dark Fury hypersonic vehicles, completed a successful ground test in Arkansas.

Poland has begun flight testing its first Korea Aerospace Industries FA-50 fighter in-country.

Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s 42.5-lb. K1000ULE aircraft completed a 75-hr., 53-min. non-stop, unrefueled flight in late July.

Capture with the 58-ft.-long robot arm occurred at 5:52 a.m. EDT, with follow-up berthing of the capsule and its more than 8,200 lb. of cargo at 8:28 EDT.

Spanish defense electronics supplier Indra is taking a stake in compatriot ITP Aero, the aero-engine company sold off by Rolls-Royce in 2021.

Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space can take part in the first phase of the tender for the UK’s Skynet Enduring Capability Wideband satcoms program.