Space

Reaction Engines has begun construction of a test facility where it plans to perform the first ground-based demonstration of its Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine.

Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance are key contenders for the Air Force’s EELV launch service investments.

Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser uses guidance, navigation and control techniques first developed for astronaut flights in the 1960s.

Trump and NATO defense spending; investor calls on Musk to stop cooperating with the president; the F-35’s air show prospects; and goodbye to a government shutdown.

Exploration Mission-1, NASA’s planned first flight of its heavy-lift Space Launch System and Orion deep-space crew capsule, won’t make its target launch date of November 2018.

NASA’s Inspector General has found the agency lagging in efforts to develop a new spacesuit for future human deep-space missions.

Tianzhou is most like the Japanese HTV cargo craft used to supply the ISS. Tianzhous will burn up on reentry, unlike the similar-sized SpaceX Dragon.

How technical advances are enabling space-based challengers to take on terrestrial internet services.

How ViaSat is pushing the boundaries of satellite connectivity.

Economist and NASA adviser’s new book puts the billionaire space investors in a different perspective.

The president's remarks came as he congratulated International Space Station commander Peggy Whitson for breaking the record for time spent orbiting Earth.

Chinese engineers declared the launch of their nation’s first space freighter a success on April 20.

Chinese human-spaceflight managers are ready to launch their nation’s long-awaited robotic cargo vehicle to the Tiangong-2 orbital outpost.

Silicon Valley garage startup can update its imagery of every spot on Earth, every day.

Trump pledges to appoint two reform-minded bank board members.

With the biggest windows ever flown into space, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space tourism vehicle will provide an unprecedented view.

Industry is seeing a dramatic shift in launch hardware as the spacefaring nations of the world prepare new rockets for peaceful and not-so-peaceful access to orbit and beyond.

There may be an explanation for the thin atmosphere that seems to come and go from Ceres, the largest of the Solar System’s main belt asteroids.

China’s first international hypersonics conference, held in Xiamen, amounted to a coming-out party for the nation’s swift progress in high speed flight research.

With the Trump administration still finding its way in space, NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin are proposing concepts for Mars exploration.

Hauling helium by airship, making the Airlander safer, Swiss drone delivers samples, E-volo unveils air taxi, Airbus going Voom in Brazil, NASA flies Prandtl wing.

The United Launch Alliance is close to choosing an engine for its Vulcan rocket between Blue Origin’s BE-4 and Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AR-1. Meanwhile Orbital ATK is pitching a solid rocket motor for the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle launch system. Aviation Week editors have the details.

In this week's Washington Outlook: Jeff Immelt urges business leaders not to count on government help, ATC reform may not tax GA operators, the NRO seeks more willingness to accept risk and the Air Force and FAA to start space traffic management pilot program.

Orbital ATK is stepping out of the shadows with a next-generation rocket booster.

A California Republican congressman and former Reagan speechwriter recalls the close vote that saved the ISS.