NASA

Construction of NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft has reached the halfway point, according to an announcement from the agency last week. The X-59 is being assembled by Lockheed Martin at the company’s facility in Palmdale, California. NASA also announced that it has awarded Lockheed Martin a $40 million contract to provide support for […]

NASA has chosen 18 astronauts who will train for missions on and around the Moon as part of the agency’s Artemis program. The Artemis Team was introduced by Vice President Mike Pence during the eighth National Space Council meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The program aims to land the first woman and […]

The FAA announced on Tuesday that it has finished the second phase of its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS/drone) Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP). UPP Phase 2 objectives included “testing of Remote Identification (RID) technologies and operations with increasing volumes and density.” According to the agency, program results will be used as a proof of concept […]

Urban air mobility (UAM) company Wisk has announced that it is partnering with NASA to explore the “safe integration of autonomous aircraft systems into Urban Air Mobility applications at a national level.” According to the company, its work will initially focus on safety scenarios related to autonomous flight and contingency management including collision avoidance and […]

The propeller designs for NASA’s all-electric X-57 Maxwell have now undergone two weeks of wind tunnel testing, the agency said on Monday. The propeller assemblies, supplied by California-based contractor Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero), logged 14 hours of powered operation during testing with wind speeds up to around 90 knots. The tests took place at the […]

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft successfully made contact with asteroid Bennu on Tuesday. The purpose of the brief touch-and-go, the first of its kind accomplished by NASA, was to collect a sample from the asteroid’s surface. Sample collection was conducted using a sampling arm, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition […]

In partnership with seven other nations, the United States signed an agreement on Tuesday designed to establish the principles that will guide cooperation among international participants in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. Rooted in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the principles laid out in the Artemis Accords include a commitment to peaceful exploration, transparency and […]

NASA and Boeing have announced that NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will replace Chris Ferguson as commander for the first crewed mission of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. Ferguson, a three-time NASA space shuttle veteran, is stepping back from the position for undisclosed personal reasons. He will assume the roles of director of Mission Integration and […]

Bell Textron’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 unmanned aircraft system (UAS/drone) successfully completed a demonstration flight on Monday as part of NASA’s Systems Integration and Operationalization (SIO) activities. The objective of the ATP 70 demonstration was to simulate an urgent medical transport mission including beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight in an urban environment along with […]

Astronaut Gerald “Jerry” Carr passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. Selected for NASA’s astronaut program in April 1966, Carr performed Capcom duties during the Apollo 8 and Apollo 12 missions and was involved in the development and testing of the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) used by Apollo flight crews. On Nov. 16, […]