Free Republic

He walks with a cane and is a bit hard of hearing. Yet Boris Chertok, 95, a former deputy chief designer in the Soviet bureau that put the first Sputnik satellite into orbit 50 years ago, still has strong opinions on the evolution of the country's space program. Chertok says the free-market changes instituted by President Boris Yeltsin after the Soviet Union fell apart were disastrous for Russian science. "We need to restore what we have lost over 15 years of destructive reforms," said Chertok, whose very name was once a state secret. "The market economy is incapable of fulfilling...

B-2 Spirit: US Most Feared Stealth Bomber Ever Made Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel. In this video, we delve into the fascinating world of U.S. stealth aircraft, tracing the evolution from the pioneering Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk to the iconic B-2 Spirit and culminating with the advanced Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider.

Switzerland agreed to buy F-35 jet fighters to park on a remote runway. Then the U.S. zeroed in on the Wangs, who owned the rustic hotel next door. UNTERBACH, — The Hotel Rössli, a century-old lodge in this Alpine valley village, enjoys a spectacular view . ... But it is the view from the back that caught the attention of American intelligence agencies. About 100 yards from the rear of the rustic, wood-paneled inn .. cuts the runway where the Swiss military had agreed to base several F-35s, the world’s most advanced jet fighter. The airstrip, only partly fenced, is...

NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, have finalized a contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for Gateway, which will be a critical way station and outpost in orbit around the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. NASA and its commercial and international partners are building Gateway to support science investigations and enable surface landings at the Moon, which will help prepare astronauts for future missions to Mars. The firm, fixed-price contract is valued at $935 million. Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will be responsible for attaching and testing the integrated HALO with the Power and...

If the Zuma launch goes well, it will mark SpaceX's 17th launch of 2017. If the landing goes off without a hitch, it will be the company's 20th overall successful landing. This includes landings on drone ships at sea as well as on land. Very little is known about the Zuma mission, as no government or commercial entity has claimed it.  Usually, even the National Reconnaissance Office — the branch of the government responsible for maintaining spy satellites — will say when a payload is theirs while keeping the mission details classified. But for some reason, whatever agency is behind...

According to a Space Force press release, which went out on May 6, another payload aboard the X-37B will be an experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves. Naval Research Laboratory’s head of beamed power has explicitly stated in the past that this system has enormous implications when it comes to long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition, it could allow satellites to provide reliable power anywhere on the planet or even to spacecraft or other satellites in orbit. In...

Beijing instructed South Korea to halt rare material products such as transformers, EVs, aerospace and medical equipment.. Beijing has asked South Korean companies to cease exporting products containing Chinese-originated heavy rare earth metals to U.S. defense firms, warning that Seoul could face sanctions. China’s Ministry of Commerce sent official notices to at least two South Korean companies recently, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Tuesday, citing sources in the South Korean transformer industry. The outlet said the letters did not specify what type of penalties South Korean companies could face if the industry continues to export equipment to the U.S....

Elon Musk's SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on Friday won U.S. Space Force rocket launch contracts worth a combined $13.5 billion through 2029 to send some of the Pentagon's most sensitive and complex satellites into space. The Space Force's flagship National Security Space Launch procurement program will assign roughly 54 missions through 2029 in incremental task orders, according to its Space Systems Command office.

U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles. Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper -- which can be used in missile guidance systems -- from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of...

Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, with Clinton’s copious help, was the source of Russia’s incredible hypersonic weapons technology. During his first TV interview as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian Federation had been “stealing” hypersonic weapons research and development from the United States during the Obama administration. This point went viral. But the story is murkier than that. Certainly, Russia did acquire key components from the United States during the Obama administration. But they did not steal it. They purchased it. And the person who authorized the sale was none other...

For the first time, we’re seeing an image from the record-breaking US military space plane while in Earth orbit. Over the weekend, the US Space Force shared a photo taken by the spacecraft X-37B during its most recent secret mission. It’s the first operational image shared while the space plane is in orbit. The image shows part of the space plane, the blue marble of Earth and the darkness of space. “An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in HEO in 2024,” the US Space...

CEDAR PARK, Texas - Among the starry nights of Central Texas this week is a little bit of home. A company out of Cedar Park launched a spacecraft on the SpaceX Falcon 9 on Wednesday. The launch from Cape Canaveral was a success. "The work is just getting started, and we've got an exciting mission in front of us, about sixty days in front of us, and we're digging in hard in all that work," said Scholtes.

New Glenn at liftoff during the NG-1 mission. Image credit: Blue Origin At 2:03 am EST on January 16, Blue Origin’s New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket is 98 meters (322 feet) tall, among the tallest around, and this first launch was a demonstration as part of the US Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program. It tested the Blue Ring spacecraft platform as well as the flight and ground system. This first launch was also a test for the reusable first stage, which was supposed to land on a barge, the Landing Platform...

In the most recent SpaceX Starship presentation, Elon Musk stated that the SpaceX Starship can become lower cost than airplanes for long haul cargo delivery. I have some detailed calculations. Starship will double the payload capacity. Full fueling costs are about the same for the 1200 tons of fuel for Starship versus 50,000 gallons of jet fuel for a long-range cargo plane for each flight. However, twice payload means half the cost. Non-fuel costs for the vehicles and the frequency of flights are hugely in Starship favor. Starship should have twice the payload. Starship starts off at half of the...

China has unveiled two prototype sixth-generation stealth fighters, potentially surpassing the J-20. The Chengdu design is notable for its large size, tailless configuration, and unique three-engine setup. The Shenyang prototype appears smaller and more traditional.

Credit: Dawn Aerospace/Cover Images A rocket-powered aircraft has broken the sound barrier for the first time since Concorde, following a successful test flight in New Zealand. Dawn Aerospace’s MK-11 Aurora jet reached supersonic speeds, marking a milestone in the company’s mission to revolutionise daily space access and satellite launches. "This achievement signifies a major step toward operational hypersonic travel and daily space access, establishing rocket-powered aircraft as a new class of ultra-high-performance vehicles," the company said in a statement. The test flight on November 12 saw the uncrewed aircraft reach a speed of Mach 1.1 (844 mph) and climb to...

Turkey's government says its military struck sites on Wednesday night in Iraq and Syria linked to Kurdish militant group the PKK, after blaming it for an attack near Ankara that killed at least five people. Various videos from the attack earlier on Wednesday show at least two people firing guns around the entrance of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which is located some 40km (25 miles) outside the capital.... No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which five people were killed and 22 injured. "A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed" in the retaliatory...

The F/A-XX program is intended to develop a carrier-based sixth-generation fighter that can conduct the same missions as the Super Hornet but that also enjoys supercruise, stealth characteristics and that can operate as the communications hub of a system of manned and unmanned systems. The F/A-XX is a conceptual cousin of the NGAD program, but the projects have been kept at arm’s length, probably because of concerns over a replay of the F-35 program. Although the F-35 program eventually produced variants for the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps, the pursuit of commonality resulted in much confusion and...

RIAT 2024 was in full throttle on Saturday, with seven hours of high-energy flying displays to thrill thousands of people who flooded through the gates. The theme of this year’s show is Air and Space: Pushing the Boundaries, and this explores the limits of the technology that the aviation industry is looking to use to its advantage. The British Antarctic Survey is pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge about global warming, and one of their Twin Otter aircraft is at the show after an epic journey via Chile, Peru, Panama, Mexico, the USA, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, and Fairford....

The Mk-II Aurora rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane has been cleared for unlimited-speed test flights at an altitude of up to 80,000 ft - Dawn Aerospace The Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane took to the skies last year for its maiden flight with a rocket engine. Now Dawn Aerospace has been give the official nod from New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority to undertake test flights at unlimited speeds. "This unlocks the next major performance milestone for the Mk-II vehicle, namely supersonic flight," said Stefan Powell, CEO of New Zealand's Dawn Aerospace. "To the best of our knowledge, this would be the first privately...