Industry News

SpaceX has squeezed in a mystery mission known as Zuma to its updated schedule of launches for 2017, NASASpaceFlight.com reported Monday. The Zuma mission, also known as Mission 1390 on the Federal Communications Commission launch license, is set to take off aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket by Nov. 10 from a launch pad at Kennedy […] More

Orbital ATK has received a five-year, $20 million contract to help U.S. Air Force researchers advance solid rocket booster technology and address technical requirements for spacecraft, tactical and strategic propulsion systems. The Defense Department said Monday the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract will provide a means for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s aerospace systems and rocket propulsion division to procure […] More

The California Air National Guard has deployed General Atomics-built MQ-9 unmanned aircraft systems to help the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection conduct mapping operations in Northern California. General Atomics said Monday MQ-9 is equipped with an intelligence and reconnaissance sensor suite that works to help firefighters on the ground obtain situational awareness data they need plan strategies […] More

Raytheon has combined merged a laser weapon and advanced surveillance equipment to a Polaris-built all-terrain vehicle to develop a new platform that can engage unmanned aerial vehicles using laser beams, Popular Mechanics reported Monday. The new High Energy Laser Weapon System-MRZR platform features a 30-square-foot electronics package, Polaris’ MRZR ATV and Raytheon’s Multi-spectral Targeting System […] More

The U.S. Navy plans to award Textron Systems a sole-source contract to supply an optical simulator technology designed to visually replicate actual threats. The service branch said in a FedBizOpps notice posted Friday the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Corona Division requires a Man-portable Aircraft Survivability Trainer and believes Textron Systems has the potential to meet MAST specifications. NSWCCO wants […] More

Tri-Cor Industries has won a task order to assist the Defense Logistics Agency‘s J62LB enterprise test directorate in efforts to secure the integrity of DLA information technology assets as well as evaluate software and systems for agency customers. The order was issued under the unrestricted portion of the J6 Enterprise Technology Services indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth $6 billion over eight years, […] More

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has deployed a National Reconnaissance Office payload into space aboard its Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The NROL-52 payload lifted off Sunday at 3:28 a.m. Eastern time to support NRO’s national security mission, ULA said Sunday. The company launched NROL-52 using an Atlas […] More

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have introduced a deep learning library to help developers prototype, create, train and deploy machine learning models for cloud computing tools, edge devices and mobile applications. The Gluon library currently serves as an interface for the Apache MXNet deep learning framework and will be updated to support Microsoft’s open-source, deep-learning toolkit called Microsoft Cognitive […] More