The seven-year mission to asteroid Bennu promises to deliver the first pristine samples from the formation of the Solar System’s inner planets.

Russia’s Europeanized Soyuz will lift a bevy of low-orbiting satellites on its first launch of 2016 from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Airlander airship approved to fly; NASA to validate RTCA’s UAS standards; Darpa tests drop-in sense-and-avoid; Armadillo’s Stig returns as Sarge; Rocket Lab moves closer to launch.

Breakthrough Starshot project aims to propel wafer-thin “nanocraft,” using powerful laser beams, toward Alpha Centauri.

Legislation would allow Pentagon to focus on threats; an FAA official prepared to take on the role; and an Air Force general supports the concept.

As Senior Space Editor Frank Morring says, companies are looking for "pots of gold" in space. That gold could come from commercial efforts that would extend the life of the International Space Station or to mine water from the Moon. Civilian space agencies might benefit as well—working with each other to reach the Moon and ultimately charting a path to Mars. Frank joins Mark Carreau and Jen DiMascio at the annual space symposium in Colorado Springs and discuss the latest efforts to explore—and profit from—outer space.

Lockheed Martin is one of seven U.S. companies building deep-space habitat concepts. Mark Carreau and Jen DiMascio toured the company's mock-up at its Littleton, Colorado facility.

There was plenty of media coverage of the Feb. 1, 2003, loss of space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart over Texas as it reentered the atmosphere, killing its crew of seven. But Aviation Week set itself apart with its in-depth, team analysis of the accident.