AIR LAUNCH: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $6.2 million contract, and Northrop Grumman $2.3 million, for Phase 1 of the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program to launch a 100-lb. satellite into low Earth orbit from an aircraft for less than $1 million per launch, including range costs. Space Information Laboratories has received $1.9 million to develop enabling technology for a GPS tracking, autonomous flight termination and space-based range system to reduce launch costs.

EXTENDED OPS: With virtually all the objectives of its primary Moon-mapping mission accomplished, NASA’s twin-spacecraft Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) mission will take a break before beginning a period of extended operations set to begin Aug. 30 and last through Dec. 3. Both spacecraft instruments will be powered off until the extended mission begins. Since March 8, the spacecraft have operated around the clock for 89 days, NASA says.

Boeing is on track to meet its milestones in the second phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) competition, after completing a preliminary design review earlier this month for software needed to operate its CST-100 crew capsule. Still to come are CCDev-2 milestones that include an orbital maneuvering/attitude control engine hot-fire test, NASA says, adding that “all of NASA’s industry partners, including Boeing, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities.”

HOUSTON — The NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has approved plans for the scheduled unberthing of the first U.S. commercial resupply mission spacecraft later this week, as the astronauts aboard the orbiting science laboratory wrapped up a fast-paced, 2,400-lb. cargo exchange.

HOUSTON — The SpaceX Dragon capsule rendezvoused with the International Space Station (ISS) May 25, overcoming some late tracking issues to become the first U.S. commercial resupply craft to dock with the six-person orbital science laboratory. Astronauts Don Pettit, Andre Kuipers and Joe Acaba grappled the unpiloted spacecraft with the station’s 17.6-meter (58-ft.) Canadarm2 at 9:56 a.m. EDT, as Dragon flew in formation 10 meters below. The freighter was berthed at the station’s U.S. segment Harmony module at 12:02 p.m. EDT.

Exploration program experts looking for ways to restructure NASA’s downsized Mars program will have about 400 concepts and abstracts to review, following a call for ideas in connection with an upcoming workshop in Houston.

Solar-electric propulsion (SEP) is high on NASA’s priority list of technologies required for long-term human space exploration. And within that arena, figuring out how to deploy large, lightweight solar arrays in space is a key enabler. Results are starting to come in under the relatively open-ended technology development effort launched at the beginning of the Obama administration. While Congress hasn’t approved the billion-dollar funding levels for the work the White House wanted, it has sprung enough money to make a start.

NEXT UP: With SpaceX’s first cargo demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) a success so far, NASA is looking ahead to the first flights of its other Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contractor, Orbital Sciences Corp. Orbital’s first demonstration launch of its Antares/Cygnus vehicle — which will not visit the ISS — could occur as early as August, according to NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini.