Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

DARPA plans an industry day on May 22 in Washington to brief companies interested in bidding to take over from SSL as the spacecraft provider and operator for its Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites program.

Lockheed Martin formally opened a new final assembly line for the F-16 in Greenville, South Carolina, on April 23.

A U.S. grand jury has charged a U.S. citizen of Chinese descent and his relative in China with theft of GE tech for gas and steam turbines, including know-how applicable to aviation.

Ghana has formally launched the world’s largest medical drone delivery service, operated by Zipline and covering the entire country.

NASA’s Mars Insight mission spacecraft has measured and recorded its first “marsquake,” the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported April 23.

SpaceX is shifting the landing site for its next Falcon 9 rocket from a Cape Canaveral AFS ground pad to a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

A team from academia and industry has begun flight testing an aircraft powered by a variable-buoyancy propulsion system.

Lockheed Martin on April 23 reported first-quarter 2019 financial results that far beat Wall Street’s expectations, with all its divisions showing double-digit revenue growth individually and the company popping 23% over revenue reported a year ago.

A package of Block 4 upgrades and other updates for the Lockheed Martin F-35 will cost an estimated $22.3 billion.

The U.S. Air Force lifted a nearly month-old grounding order on a fleet of more than 60 B-1B bombers on April 23.

Safran is to develop an engine derived from the M88 powering the Rafale as the powerplant for a tech demo for the Franco-German Future Combat Air System program.

The U.S. Air Force is conducting research before holding a ground demonstration to streamline the Advanced Extremely High Frequency mission control segment.

Key aerospace and defense supplier Collins Aerospace expects up to $0.10 of “headwind” on its earnings per share (EPS) this year.

A first test of the new DeepStrike missile rocket motor validated the expected performance for the proposed medium-range surface-to-surface missile, Raytheon announced on April 23.

NASA is seeking ideas for reliable and secure communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) systems to enable urban air mobility (UAM).

Vertical takeoff and landing rocket vehicle developer Masten Space Systems says it is on track to fly a terrestrial testbed version of its XL-1 lunar lander within 12 months.

Belgium will receive its first F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in 2023, although the first aircraft will not be based in-country until 2025.

Armed with its Part 135 operator’s certificate, Wing now plans to engage with communities and businesses in Blacksburg and Christiansburg in southwest Virginia, close where it has been testing its delivery drones.

Boeing is working with satellite customer Intelsat to figure out why Intelsat 29e failed after the spacecraft was declared a total loss.

The USAF is standing up a gateway comm system at an operational base to enable certain front-line fighters, including the F-35A, to transmit data to other aircraft types without compromising its stealth signature.

The U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program delivered the fifth satellite to Cape Canaveral after successfully completing a battery of tests.

Government services provider Jacobs is buying cybersecurity specialist KeyW for $815 million, including $272 million in debt, the companies announced April 22.

An Italian startup developing micro-turbines to power unmanned aircraft has won the $1 million grand prize in New York state’s Genius NY accelerator competition.

Japanese industry is discussing the creation of a joint company for fighter development.

A directive that accelerates NASA’s plans to return to the Moon’s surface with humans from 2024-2028 has also created an urgency that it return first with rovers.