The new SS2 will begin captive carriage flight tests beneath the company’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft later this year, leading to glide flights and later powered flights using the new motor.

In the Air Force’s 2016 budget request, officials sought to focus on how to use space in the face of military threats and on developing the ability to deter and defeat potential attacks. That emphasis translated into funding for programs such as Space Fence and the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System. Since threats have continued to evolve, the Air Force is working with the intelligence community to make space systems more resilient in its fiscal 2017 request, says Winston Beauchamp, the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for Space.

The Indian space industry is aiming to correct a chronic criticism-—that it lacks the heavy-launch vehicles necessary to compete on the international commercial space launch market.

The initial payloads on the first launch of the heavy-lift Space Launch System will be relatively small CubeSats, but the results could be huge, heralding a day when swarms of minuscule satellites ride piggyback deep into the Solar System for missions now conducted by billion-dollar, custom-built spacecraft.

The U.S. Air Force will need help from Congress to pursue its next-generation launch system plan, but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues pressure against the use of RussianRD-180 rocket engines.

NASA seeks funds for mission that could test techonology now slated for threatened asteroid-redirect effort.

India is continuing to reel in images from the red planet from its Mangalyaan mission, which was launched in November 2013.

Commercial capacity in lower Earth Orbit is booming, but it’s unclear what payloads will use all that’s being built up by companies such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue Origin, Arianespace, Energia, China Great Wall and India’s Antrix.