The U.S. Congress is closer than ever before to reversing a 14-year-old law aimed at limiting dual-use satellite technology that the industry complains has put U.S. exports at a competitive disadvantage.

GENOA — To reduce its debt and take a step to strategically reposition the company, Finmeccanica has reached an agreement to disinvest its 14% stake in Avio and have an Italian state fund buy it. The transaction coincides with Avio’s planned initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to happen this year.

HOUSTON — The Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon capsule has concluded the first International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission flown by a U.S. commercial provider, finalizing a significant upswing in private sector capability to shoulder U.S. civil space activities, with a May 31 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast.

LONDON — Ultra Electronics has resumed its process of making niche acquisitions with the purchase of satellite communications terminal provider Giga Communications. The price of the deal, £12.4 million ($19.3 million), could rise by another £24.6 million depending on earnings delivered in the next two years. Ultra expects the deal to start adding to its bottom line this year.

COMING HOME: Preparations for the mid-to-early June landing of the U.S. Air Force’s second reusable X-37B space plane mission are under way at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the service says. The precise landing date and time depends on technical and weather considerations. “Space professionals from the 30th Space Wing will monitor the deorbit and landing of the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission, called OTV-2,” the service said in an announcement. The spacecraft was launched on March 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral.

HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station re-sealed the hatch to the Dragon spacecraft on the eve of the capsule’s May 31 departure and the rapid series of events that will transfer control of the landmark commercial-supply flight back to SpaceX for re-entry and a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery. If the final leg of the nine-day test flight unfolds as planned, Dragon and a 1,400-lb. return cargo will splash down 560 mi. southwest of Los Angeles shortly before 12 p.m. EDT.

SAN FRANCISCO — Preparations are under way for the low-energy launch of a high-energy X-ray telescope developed to count black holes in the Milky Way, study how particles are created when massive stars explode and how their particles are accelerated to nearly the speed of light. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuStar) is to be drop-launched June 13 by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL from the company’s modified L-1011 “Stargazer” aircraft at 8:30 a.m. PDT.

Locked in the Falcon 9 second stage was a container holding the individual cremated remains of 320 'passengers'