Raytheon has expressed plans to sell its new medium-range air-to-air missile to a number of international customers, DoD Buzz reported Wednesday. The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile – Extended Range integrates the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile‘s rocket motor in effort to increase range and altitude, Brendan McGarry writes. Raytheon developed AMRAAM-ER in collaboration with Norway’s Kongsberg Gruppen, the report said. Michael […] More

NASA has scheduled Oct. 13 as the date it aims to launch an Orbital ATK-built Cygnus spacecraft on a mission to deliver more than 5,100 pounds of crew supplies and research equipment to the International Space Station. Officials from both NASA and Orbital ATK plan to roll out Cygnus to a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia by Oct. […] More

United Launch Alliance has updated the estimated launch date of a DigitalGlobe commercial imaging satellite due to the availability of Vandenberg Air Force Base’s western range. ULA said Sunday the Lockheed Martin-built WorldView-4 satellite will launch to space no earlier than Sept. 26. The satellite and the ULA Atlas V rocket that will carry it are currently housed in the mobile service tower at Vandenberg […] More

Vector Space Systems has secured a Phase II contract under NASA‘s Small Business Technology Transfer project to continue developing an upper stage prototype for the Vector-R launch vehicle. The award complements the company’s existing contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to examine the potential use of Vector-R’s first stage as a second stage for DARPA’s XS-1 experimental spaceplane, Vector Space Systems said […] More

NASA has kicked off its use of specialized transporters built by Wheelift to transport the core stage and test articles of the Space Launch System to various agency centers for tests. The space agency said Tuesday the mobile platforms are designed to carry the 212-foot SLS core stage, the largest part of the SLS rocket built to […] More

A team comprising subsidiaries of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Safran Electronics & Defense has been awarded a prime contract to provide unmanned aerial vehicle launcher systems to the U.S. Army. The Madison Research Corp.–Robonic team will deliver two KONTIO launchers to the Army’s Program Management Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Targets Management Office under the contract, Kratos said Wednesday. The service branch […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has asked vendors to provide information on mobile layered defense platforms and related components designed to defend mobile and fixed naval and land-based forces against threats posed by small unmanned aircraft systems. DARPA said in a request for information posted Aug. 11 on FedBizOpps it is interested in scalable systems, […] More

Approximately 50 percent of work that will result from U.S. missile defense funds for Israel will go to U.S. companies, Defense News reported Thursday. Barbara Opall-Rome writes Boeing and Raytheon as well as their U.S. subcontractors and suppliers will receive half of the production funds to support work for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow missile defense programs […] More

NASA has awarded Southern Research a five-year, $10 million contract renewal to continue to support a video imaging system used on the space agency’s WB-57 research aircraft. The Airborne Imaging and Recording System is attached to the WB-57 nose cap and designed to process full motion videos of rockets that ascend into space at a distance of more than 25 miles, Southern Research […] More

The Energy Department‘s National Energy Technology Laboratory will invest $30 million in six selected Phase 2 projects to help develop technologies for gas turbine components and supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles. DOE said Wednesday it seeks technologies that work to help combined-cycle power plants meet a target thermal efficiency rating of 65 percent from its current efficiency rating of 61 […] More

Northrop Grumman will sponsor 80 middle school students and 48 science teachers from the U.S., Australia and the U.K.for them to attend Space Camp July 24 through July 29 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Space Camp will feature space shuttle missions simulations, astronaut training simulators and activities such as rocket building and launches for the students, […] More

Orbital ATK aims to launch a company-built Cygnus spacecraft for its sixth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station by Aug. 22 under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. NASA said Friday that Cygnus will lift off from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia onboard an Antares rocket. The […] More