GENOA — Avio’s continued growth is reflected in its 2011 results, which improved from the previous year despite the difficult economic scenario in Europe. The Italian aerospace propulsion company, which is led by Francesco Caio, reached the €2 billion ($2.6 billion) revenue mark, improving by 14.5%, compared with €1.75 billion the year before. The company’s operating results also improved, to €380 million, versus €360 million in 2010.

The U.S. Navy’s only major satellite program, which is designed to provide unprecedented Ultra-High Frequency satellite communications to military personnel around the globe, has so far slipped through the round of fiscal 2013 budget cuts unscathed despite some development shortcomings. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Jan 26 that he was terminating the Air Force’s Defense Weather Satellite System because it was “premature to need.”

FCC Seeks Comments On Push By LightSquared To Blame GPSFCC Seeks Comments On Push By LightSquared To Blame GPS

SPECIAL DELIVERY: The first of the retired space shuttle orbiters to go on display will arrive at its final destination April 17. Discovery is due to land at Washington Dulles International Airport atop a shuttle carrier aircraft, and be delivered to the National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center at the airport two days later. NASA’s workhorse shuttle will replace the atmospheric test article Enterprise in the museum display.

HOUSTON — Applications for a place in NASA’s astronaut corps surged past the 5,100 mark on Jan. 27, as a midnight deadline approached for one of the nine to 15 estimated openings in the class of 2013. The space agency selected nine men and women from 3,600 applicants in 2009, the most recent astronaut class.

NASA has granted the Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego a pair of six-month contract extensions valued at $32.9 million for continued safety and mission assurance and technical support services at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The agreement provides support for the International Space Station, Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and yet-to-be-named programs managed from Houston by the space agency, according to a Jan. 26 announcement. The extension period begins May 1.

COLLISION: The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the Jan. 26 collision of a barge carrying Atlas V rocket stages with a bridge over the Tennessee river that caused part of the bridge to collapse. The 312-ft. vessel, which is owned and operated by Foss Marine, was carrying an Atlas V booster and Centaur upper stage for the U.S. Air Force’s AEHF-2 mission scheduled to launch in April, along with an interstage adapter for NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission slated to launch in August.

The launch of a telecommunications satellite has been postponed due to an unspecified technical problem.