NASA

NASA’s Glenn Research Center has announced that it plans to retire its Lockheed S-3B Viking research aircraft after 16 years of service. The last example of the model still flying, NASA acquired its S-3B from the U.S. Navy in 2004. The aircraft has been used primarily for flight communications research, including missions designed to help […]

Former astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force officer Pam Melroy was sworn in as NASA Deputy Administrator during a ceremony at the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday. Melroy was nominated for the position in April and confirmed by the Senate on June 17. Selected as an astronaut candidate in 1994, she served as pilot on […]

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft has started its return journey after almost five years in space. The trip is expected to take 2.5 years with OSIRIS-REx currently due to reach Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. As previously reported by AVweb, the spacecraft touched down briefly on asteroid Bennu last […]

The FAA has announced that it is adding more space launch activity area markers to pilot navigation charts with the goal of “increasing pilot safety and airspace awareness.” Citing a significant increase in commercial space operations, the agency emphasized that pilots flying near space launch activity areas should check the NOTAM database for any space […]

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to confirm former astronaut and senator Bill Nelson as the 14th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He takes over from acting NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk. Nelson, who went to space in 1986 as payload specialist on space shuttle Columbia, represented Florida in the U.S. […]

Pilot, astronaut and author Michael Collins passed away on Wednesday at the age of 90. Chosen as one of fourteen members of NASA’s third astronaut group in 1963, Collins first went to space as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 10 mission. He also flew the Apollo 11 mission, piloting the command module while crew members […]

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on Friday morning and is en route to the International Space Station (ISS). On board Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut  Akihiko  Hoshide  and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas  Pesquet. Endeavour is expected […]

NASA has marked April 8 as the first possible flight date for its Mars helicopter technology demonstrator, which arrived on the planet on Feb. 18 attached to the Perseverance rover. Named Ingenuity, the demonstrator is designed to be the first powered, controlled aircraft to fly on another planet. Once it detaches from the rover, the […]

NASA successfully completed the second hot fire test of the core stage of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Thursday at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The rocket’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines fired for 8 minutes and 19 seconds while running through a series of operational conditions designed to simulate […]

NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Thursday afternoon, 203 days after it launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a ULA Atlas V 541 rocket. The 2,263-pound rover is on a two-year mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life along with collecting samples of rock and regolith from Mars’ […]