On July 23, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) celebrated the 40th birthday of Landsat, the Earth-observing satellite series most closely identified with building a continuing data stream about how population growth, climate change, natural events and man's activities are influencing the planet.

Aerojet and Rocketdyne trace their roots to the dawn of the space age, with both companies building the engines that powered multiple generations of ICBMs and manned space vehicles. But the long-term outlook for both suppliers became clouded in recent years with the sharp decline in the demand for government launch services and the advent of new, lower-cost rivals, such as Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

For Sally Ride, who died July 23, 2012, of pancreatic cancer, being the first U.S. woman in space was only the beginning of a long and productive career.

WASHINGTON - Small satellites, once the realm of one-off low-budget science missions and undergraduate engineering classes, have come full circle with the growing realization among hard-pressed, high-end users that the little birds can do the big jobs, too. (Cubesat image: Raytheon)

After dueling foreign policy speeches before the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week, the U.S. presidential candidates unleashed their surrogates on Washington, where a discussion at the Brookings Institution underscored both candidates' inability to answer questions on defense spending.

Open-ended technology-development program collects data for future exploration

After years of little presidential attention during the last administration, aerospace and defense industry executives are now more in the loop with top Pentagon officials—but they don't feel any better. In the latest in a series of get-togethers, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and several CEOs and trade organization leaders sat down last week to discuss the so-called sequestration budget cuts that are set to take effect in January. But from reports of the meeting, neither side walked away with answers or reasons to feel less anxious.

Politics—not policy or technology—is proving to be the biggest obstacle to developing alternative-fuel programs for the military that could prove to be successful commercial energy alternatives, says Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate. The Pentagon is employing and deploying ships and aircraft using sound technology for alternative energy, particularly biofuels, Cuttino says.