Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK’s space systems group, has said the company expects NASA to decide soon on whether to use its Antares vehicle or the United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V rocket in Cygnus spacecraft’s future cargo missions as part of the Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract, Space News reported Tuesday. Jeff Foust writes Culbertson […] More

Lockheed Martin has conducted the first flight test of a second trainer aircraft that the company plans to offer in the U.S. Air Force‘s T-X trainer competition. The company said Monday the demonstration of its second production-ready T-50A  aircraft occurred in Greenville, South Carolina, where Lockheed’s final assembly and checkout facility is located. T-50A is designed to train pilots of F-22 […] More

Gen. David Goldfein, chief of staff at the U.S. Air Force, has said that he expected a shakeout in the military service’s $16 billion T-X trainer competition launched in late 2016 given the branch’s strategy to procure a new jet fighter training system, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday. According to the story by Yasmin Tadjdeh, Goldfein told reporters during a meeting in […] More

A new Visiongain report forecasts the global military aircraft maintenance, repair and operations market will hit $49 billion in value in 2015. Visiongain said Friday the increasing adoption of new fighter aircraft among tier-one market players would spur growth in the industry. The 2015-2025 forecast covers maintenance aspects in operations and field, heavy airframe, heavy engine, […] More

NASA and its industry partners Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX together passed 23 milestones in the Commercial Crew Program in 2014 as they seek to develop crew space transportation systems. NASA said Monday the program also included technical review sessions to ensure the reliability and safety of those systems, which would carry astronauts to and from the […] More

Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX have reported their current statuses on their respective agreements with NASA under the Commercial Crew Program for space transportation systems. “Our partners’ detailed progress on launch and spaceflight capabilities expands domestic access to space,” Kathy Lueders, manager of the Commercial Crew Program, said Friday. NASA said these industry partners are working with […] More