We received 293 entries and 637 individual photos for the 23rd Annual Aviation Week Photo Contest. Entries came from all 50 U.S. states and 14 other countries, representing every continent except Antarctica. Space is the most difficult category for drawing entries because access is limited and there are fewer events that provide photo opportunities.

The outcomes of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space-industry ambitions may lie in the future, but he definitely moved the needle in 2015.

A couple of crossings were powered by alternative propulsion in 2015: the Pacific by solar and the English Channel by electric. But the big news was some approaching operational debuts from CFM and Pratt&Whitney.

Through partnerships and investments, defense primes and OEMs are increasingly turning the page away from the old playbook of acquiring and subsuming new technology.

Spacecraft propulsion systems for communications satellites serve a unique purpose—to produce carefully measured pulses that help spacecraft achieve their final trajectory and orbital positions, and to maintain those positions once reached.

Robotic spacecraft traveled throughout the Solar System in 2015 and gave planetary scientists different perspectives on objects ranging from microscopic dust particles at its outer reaches, to the gas giant Jupiter, to the hot clouds of Venus.

Today, small satellites must hitch a ride into orbit, but an array of small-payload vehicles are under development that promise low-cost, quick-response launches of spacecraft as slight as cubesat size.

France’s defense ministry will begin work on three new major space-system developments in the coming year, including an international collaboration with Germany in the area of remote sensing and an operational follow-on to the Elisa signals-intelligence demo.