Airbus Defense and Space is facing schedule challenges as it develops a European service module that will power the NASA Orion crew capsule, including documentation issues for Shuttle-era propulsion systems and NASA safety concerns over redundancy.

NASA is betting that the search for the signatures of life can be enhanced by the massive Space Launch System now being built.

Commercial space bill nears final passage; Middle East nations seek precision weapons; DHS pledges new security enhancements; and Ex-Im Bank reauthorization takes another step forward.

Catch up on this week’s big talking points in aerospace and defense, including Saab’s UAE Surveillance deal and MRJ’s first flight.

Delivering a staggering 1 terabits per second of throughput, ViaSat-3 will also comprise the first spacecraft in a three-satellite constellation designed to provide global broadband from geostationary orbit, feeding mobile demand from the U.S. government and commercial aeronautical markets.

NASA evaluators appear to have winnowed the field for future ISS cargo contractors to the commercial-cargo capsules already operated by CRS-1 contractors Orbital ATK and SpaceX and an unmanned cargo version of the Sierra Nevada Corp. Dream Chaser reusable lifting body.

Ideas abound as NASA takes a deeper look at how it will use the big new Saturn V-class Space Launch System in the 2020s and beyond.

NASA delays its CRS-2 contract, again. Italy is in line to become the next nation with armed Reapers. The FAA scrambles to create a UAV registration system. And the Ex-Im bank bill nears final passage.