Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NASA has selected 16 wide-ranging science investigations and technology demonstrations for launch next year as the first payloads to be delivered to the Moon’s surface by two of 14 companies qualified by the agency for lunar missions under NASA’s $2.6 billion, 10-year Commercial Lunar Payload Services programs.

Ad Astra Rocket Co. is poised to bring the company’s Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket electric propulsion system to a Technical Readiness Level of 6.

Poland’s government will sign a $4.6 billion contract for 32 Lockheed Martin F-35As on Jan. 31, Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak announced Jan. 27.

The U.S. defense research agency awarded Northrop a $13 million, one-year contract under the Glide Breaker program.

Astronauts on the fourth spacewalk to repair the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer found signs of a leak.

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Bell will conduct the first of several operational demonstrations of its APT-70 cargo drone with a competitive flyoff under the U.S. Navy’s Tactical

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Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Japan is boosting its space exploration budget.

The whistleblower contends Lockheed Martin has been applying a chemical to seal the C-130J’s integral fuel tank that may have long-term health consequences for those applying it and others nearby.

Apache Aviation, a flying school based in Dijon, France, is enjoying brisk demand for its new advanced upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) module, after EASA mandated such pilot instruction in December 2019.

U.S. offshore helicopter operators Bristow and Era Group are to merge in the first major consolidation since the industry went into a crisis due to falling energy prices.

A U.S. Air Force low-cost unmanned aircraft system demonstrator returned to flight on Jan. 23 after a three-month hiatus caused by a landing mishap.

Russia’s United Engine Corporation (UEC) has delivered its first two PD-14 turbofan engines to the Irkutsk aviation plant.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), one of two large warship manufacturing companies for U.S. naval services, is continuing to make headway in its efforts to diversify its business portfolio with a major new U.S. Air Force contract to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Boom Supersonic has partnered with Flight Research Inc. (FRI) to test its XB-1 demonstrator in a supersonic corridor stretching across the Mojave Desert.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace and defense professionals.

Congressional auditors are criticizing the Pentagon’s reliance on accounting adjustments in preparing its financial statements, which they call “a

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK forecasts the world’s fleet of western-designed fighter aircraft will generate $321.6 billion in maintenance, repair and

Total deal value in 2019 grew 62% to almost $94 billion compared with 2018, PwC says.

General Atomics wants to turn the MQ-1C into a “mothership” for the Army’s future Air Launched Effects (ALE).

Deliveries of single-aisle airliners plummeted nearly 24% in 2019, largely due to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, but should bounce back more than 34% in 2020, Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia said Jan. 23.

Adding simulator training to Boeing’s latest projected 737 MAX certification time frame could push Southwest Airlines’ next MAX revenue flights into the 2020 fourth quarter, estimates laid out by the airline’s executives show.

The dedicated final assembly line for the F-35C is intended to overcome production delays that emerged in 2019.