Aerojet Rocketdyne has agreed to supply propulsion and energetic systems for Raytheon‘s major weapon programs under a strategic sourcing agreement between the two companies. Raytheon and Aerojet Rocketdyne also aim to jointly chase affordability programs in the government sector through 2019 as part of their partnership, Raytheon said Tuesday. “This landmark agreement is an important step forward in collaboration between […] More

Orbital ATK aims to build a rocket technology offering for the U.S. Air Force as part of the company’s push into the national security satellite market, Reuters reported Tuesday. Irene Klotz writes John Steinmeyer, director of business development at Orbital ATK, said at the Space Congress held Tuesday in Florida the company would base its “Next Generation Launcher” on solid-rocket […] More

Orbital ATK moved an updated version of the Antares rocket to Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch pad Thursday in preparation for the rocket’s first hot-fire engine test, Universe Today reported Monday. Ken Kremer writes Kurt Eberly, deputy program manager for Antares at Orbital ATK, said in an interview that the initial 30-second engine test of the […] More

An Orbital ATK facility in Iuka, Massachusetts has reached the 500-unit production milestone for a large composite rocket structure the company makes for a Boeing–Lockheed Martin launch services joint venture. OA produced a boat tail structure –  the 68th of its product-line that includes heat shields and interstages – for the United Launch Alliance‘s Atlas V launch vehicle, the company […] More

The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command activated the first satellite of the Boeing-built Wideband Global Satellite constellation six months after it completed a series of tests, the Army reported Thursday. WGS-1 is the first block I satellite of the WGS constellation that works to provide two-way Ka– and X-band communications services for combatant commanders […] More

Boeing has received consent from NASA to store a tracking and data relay satellite at the company’s facility in El Segundo, Calif. following the completion of work to build the satellite in 2015. TDRS-M is the sixth satellite Boeing built for NASA’s TDRS constellation that is designed to help the space agency meet high-bandwidth communications requirements of […] More

United Launch Alliance and Bigelow Aerospace have formed a partnership to build and launch habitable volumes into low Earth orbit in an effort to support research efforts in space. Bigelow Aerospace plans to integrate the habitable volumes with the B330 expandable module and launch the module onboard the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture ULA’s Atlas V […] More

Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin‘s space systems segment, has said Lockheed and Boeing are committed to fund the development of their 50-50 joint venture’s Vulcan rocket, Space News reported Thursday. Mike Gruss writes Ambrose told a press briefing at the Satellite 2016 conference in Maryland that uncertainty on how to move away from the Russia-built RD-180 […] More

Craig Cooning, president of the network and space systems division at Boeing, has said the company’s joint venture with Lockheed Martin will incrementally invest funds to help develop two potential domestic alternatives to the Russian RD-180 engine, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday. Stew Magnuson writes Cooning told a press briefing at the Satellite 2016 conference in Maryland that the United Launch Alliance will support the […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has selected Dynetics to further assist in the development of a new rocket engine intended to replace the Russian-made RD-180 currently used by the U.S. military to launch defense and national security space assets. Dynetics has participated in the AR1 development team over the past 18 months and will supply the engine’s main propulsion system, ignition system and […] More

United Launch Alliance has selected Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems to serve as an auxiliary payload customer on ULA’s CubeSat rideshare program under a memorandum of understanding between the two companies. Tyvak will be able to provide commercial and U.S. government CubeSat customers, as well as science, technology, engineering and math CubeSat customers access to ULA’s Atlas V […] More

Blue Origin-built New Shepard rocket has completed a take-off and vertical landing operation two months after the company put the rocket through a second unmanned test flight in November 2015. Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in a blog entry posted Friday that New Shepard took off from a launch site in West Texas and slowly descended to Earth for reuse […] More