The 31st Space Symposium is underway this week in Colorado Springs, with a host of government and industry space speakers from around the world including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain and U.S. Air Force Space Command chief Gen. John Hyten. Also this week is the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space symposium near Washington. Meanwhile, inside the capital beltway U.S.
NASA doesn’t currently plan to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon, but it would be willing to accept a ride down from cislunar space on a vehicle provided by its international partners to enrich preparations for a human landing on Mars.
Saab and Embraer have signed an agreement covering joint development of the JAS 39E/F Gripen Next Generation fighter at the LAAD defense and security show in Rio De Janeiro.
SpaceX’s sixth Dragon commercial resupply mission spacecraft climbed to orbit April 14, initiating a three-day trip to the six-person International Space Station (ISS) with a 4,300-lb. cargo, following a 24-hr. weather delay.
French defense electronics firm ECA Group says it has developed a sensor capability for its IT180 rotary-wing UAV that allows operators to locate malicious UAV operators.
NASA’s next Mars lander is on track to meet its March 2016 launch date, as Lockheed Martin technicians here put the finishing touches on the Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft.
The U.S. Navy has laid out an Advanced Growler road map for its Boeing EA-16G electronic attack aircraft, with potential upgrades including the Raytheon Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod, conformal fuel tanks and a wideband data link.
BAE Systems and partners are now halfway through the Royal Australian Navy’s Anzac frigate upgrade program, with the undocking of the fourth ship to be modernized, HMAS Warramunga.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) wants to see how the Aegis Ashore missile shield would handle antiaircraft missions, says James Sheridan, director of U.S. Navy Aegis programs for Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the combat system. There is some discussion of antiaircraft warfare (AAW) capability for Aegis Ashore, Sheridan said April 6 during a media briefing in advance of this week’s annual Navy League Sea Air Space conference and symposium. “The MDA is asking for some studies,” Sheridan says.
The due-regard radar required for the U.S. Navy’s Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton to operate in international airspace will now be installed in the “multi-intelligence” version of the unmanned aircraft planned to become operational in 2020.
European launch consortium Arianespace has delayed a planned April 15 launch of Norway’s Thor 7 commercial communications satellite and the Franco-Italian Sicral 2 military comsat on an Ariane 5 rocket, due to a fluid-line problem on the vehicle’s upper stage.
Russian state-owned helicopter manufacturer, Russian Helicopters, says its revenue grew last year despite the challenges posed by the strength of the ruble against foreign currencies.
This new rocket is the company’s path to substantially reduce its cost to launch — a critical factor as the company’s monopoly over national security launches is eroding — and compete against SpaceX.
India is rethinking its long-delayed 126-aircraft Medium-Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, and may opt to scrap the fighter purchase in favor of government-to-government sales.
SpaceX and NASA planned a second attempt to launch the sixth Falcon9/Dragon commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station on April 14, a 24-hr. delay, after a lightning threat late in the first countdown on April 13 forced a postponement.
Known as Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), the heliophysics payload will fly aboard the SES-14 spacecraft under a five-year contract with the University of Colorado.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France’s aerospace center in Toulouse on April 11, where Airbus Group said it is ready to increase co-production in the south Asian nation as part of New Delhi’s “Make in India” program.
The U.S. says it has raised concerns with Russia about the behavior of its fighter pilots after a U.S. Air Force RC-135 intelligence-gathering aircraft was intercepted over the Baltic Sea in what it called an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”
The U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) navies conducted a successful mine countermeasures exercise in March and earlier this month as part of Foal Eagle 2015.
The U.S., its allies and partners face a growing ballistic missile threat in the Asia-Pacific region, a recent Congressional Research Service report says.
The full-spectrum cyber potential of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) operations will drive the U.S. Marine Corps’ efforts to understand and leverage how to best collect, distribute and disseminate all of the data and information processing now being made available with modern sensors and computers, says Gen. Joseph Dunford, Corps commandant.
BAE Systems and the Australian defense ministry have completed trials of BAE’s Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) guided rocket from an Airbus Tiger attack helicopter.
