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The SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon spacecraft was successfully launched into space on Saturday May 30, 2020, marking the first-ever collaboration between NASA and a private entity, Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Falcon 9 booster was comprised of nine SpaceX Merlin rocket engines, which use RP-1 (refined petroleum) and liquid oxygen as propellants to develop the immense thrust necessary for a heavy space-bound launch vehicle. All the news reports were dutifully filled with superlatives regarding this unprecedented public-private joint venture, and it was indeed a very significant accomplishment. It's not often that the two normally-opposing spheres of industry come together in such a positive...

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Kennedy Space Center Merritt Island, Florida3:47 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  I just want to say this is a very exciting day for our country.  We have been at this long and hard for three and a half years.I want to thank Elon for — who’s been a friend of mine for a very long time, somebody I have great respect for.  But this is 24/7 for you.  You’re always thinking about this.  You’re thinking about other things, too; you have plenty to think about.  But this has been your baby.MR. MUSK:  This is the top...

The aircraft was on a routine night training mission when the incident occurred. BY TYLER ROGOWAY MAY 20, 2020 THE WAR ZONE Details remain scarce at this time, but an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that was flying out of Eglin AFB, which is located on the Florida panhandle, has crashed. Thankfully, the pilot was able to eject and is safe. The incident occurred at around 9:30 pm local time and the F-35A was on a routine night training mission. This is the second crash of an aircraft operating out of the base in less than a week, with an F-22...

NASA’s top executive concentrating on human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, has resigned just a week before the scheduled start of a milestone space mission. Loverro became NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations last December, and was playing a leading role in NASA’s Artemis moon program as well as preparations for next week’s launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. That mission, set for liftoff on May 27 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is due to send NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the station for a stay that could last...

Public affairs officer Capt. Jennifer Casey died in the crash, pilot seriously injured after jet crashed into house in Brocklehurst. Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian said the Snowbirds remain parked at Kamloops Airport for the foreseeable future. The incident took place seconds after a pair of Snowbirds aircraft took off from Kamloops Airport at about 11:45 a.m. Dozens of versions of video of the crash and its aftermath circulated on social media in the hours that followed. The videos show one of the planes flying vertically before a pilot is ejected, followed by an airborne explosion and the subsequent crash. Some...

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron, and part of the 325th Fighter Wing currently based at Eglin Air Force Base, crashed at approximately 9:15 a.m. May 15. The location of the crash was approximately 12 miles northeast of Eglin AFB’s main base on the test and training range. The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was transported to the 96th Medical Group hospital on Eglin AFB for evaluation and observation. He was listed in stable condition. The name of the pilot has not been released. There were no other...

The first flight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly nine years finally has a launch date: May 27. The mission will launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in a final test flight for NASA. The mission, Demo-2, will mark NASA's first crew launch from American soil since the agency's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. Liftoff is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from historic Launch Pad 39A, the same site used for NASA's Apollo and shuttle missions.

LCRT would be an ultra-long-wavelength radio telescope capable of capturing some of the weakest signals traveling through space. “It is not possible to observe the universe at wavelengths greater than 10 meters [33 feet], or frequencies below 30 MHz, from Earth-based stations, because these signals are reflected by the Earth’s ionosphere,” said Bandyopadhyay. “Moreover, Earth-orbiting satellites would pick up significant noise from Earth’s ionosphere,” which is why “such observations are very difficult.” It’s for this reason that wavelengths greater than 10 meters have yet to be explored by scientists. Consequently, this telescope would be a tremendous boon to astronomers and...

Boeing will continue indefinitely its shutdown of local factory operations rather than reopening Wednesday as planned, it told Washington state employees Sunday via email. “Boeing is extending the temporary suspension of operations at all Puget Sound area and Moses Lake sites until further notice,” the company told employees. Boeing has about roughly 70,000 employees in the state. The decision affects about 30,000 of them, mostly production workers. Employees who can work from home will continue to do so and volunteer employees will continue to maintain essential services at the plants. The company said its decision was based on its “continuing...

Stratolaunch's website now reveals that the company has reinvented itself as a builder, tester and operator of hypersonic vehicles — those that can travel at least five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. The huge plane is key to this new mission, hauling vehicles aloft to test various payloads in the extreme environments imposed by hypersonic flight. Those vehicles will include Stratolaunch's Talon-A, a 28-foot-long (8.5 m), 6,000-lb. (2,722 kilograms) reusable craft capable of reaching Mach 6. The huge dual-fuselage plane — which used to be called Roc, but is now apparently known as the Stratolaunch Carrier —...

Japan shed a little bit of history this week as the last of the country’s RF-4E/J Phantom II reconnaissance jets, part of a fleet that has served for more than 50 years, flew for the last time. The last six recon Phantoms flew for the last time on March 9, and the country will retire its entire Phantom fleet by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Tokyo is pursuing the development of a new fighter jet it will design with help from the U.S.. The six jets, part of the 501 Hikotai squadron, were RF-4 photoreconnaissance variants of the iconic...

Eight days after a Boeing Co. 737 Max went down in the Java Sea, killing all aboard, the planemaker issued a worldwide warning to pilots identifying the malfunction that triggered the crash. The bulletin, which was followed almost immediately by a similar notice from U.S. regulators, listed the symptoms cockpit crews faced in such an emergency and explained how to counteract it. News reports described the problem. Yet less than five months later a second 737 Max went down, slamming into a field in Ethiopia, after suffering the same malfunction. As the one-year anniversary of that crash approaches, many questions...

The Boeing Starliner didn't see any testing shortcuts before its flawed flight test, officials said Friday, but the company vowed to expand tests in the future. Boeing (BA) stock fell. In December, the Boeing Starliner set off on an uncrewed test, but it failed to reach the International Space Station as planned because a software error prevented it from getting into the proper orbit. It was later revealed that an internal timer on the capsule was off by 11 hours, causing the Boeing Starliner to believe that it was further into the mission. Another software issue was found with the...

Boeing recently discovered some of its stored 737 MAXes have foreign objects in the fuel tanks. The entire fleet of 400+ newly produced but undelivered MAXes is being inspected. Foreign objects, called foreign object debris (FOD) in aviation parlance, consist of tools or rags. FOD has been found in the fuel tanks of some MAXes. MAXes are stored at four locations in Washington State and in San Antonio (TX). It’s unlikely that the FOD inspections will delay recertification or testing of the MAX. The FAA was informed by Boeing. It takes up to three days to inspect each airplane, LNA...

Hundreds of F-35s could have the wrong fasteners in “critical areas,” according to the Defense Contract Management Agency. But F-35 builder Lockheed Martin says the problem may not need to be fixed. “All aircraft produced prior to discovery of this [problem] have titanium fasteners incorrectly installed in locations where the design calls for Inconel,” the F-35 Joint Program Office said in an email in response to a query from Air Force Magazine. “Because of this, the engineering safety analysis of the issue has assumed that each critical F-35 joint was assembled with the incorrect fasteners.” Inconel is an alloy of...

Despite multiple efforts to push the iconic A-10 Warthog's retirement date further into the future, the U.S. Air Force is now slated to shelve dozens of the Cold War-era ground-attack planes in the upcoming fiscal year, according to the service's budget request.

LYNNWOOD, Wash. (Reuters) - Boeing Co suppliers are shedding jobs and capacity to cope with a halt in 737 MAX output, but while that staves off chaos, aerospace executives worry the industry might be unable to ramp factories quickly enough when the plane wins approval to fly again. Boeing, struggling to restore public confidence and recover from the biggest crisis since its founding in 1916, has halted production of the once fast-selling 737 MAX, which was grounded in March following two deadly crashes. As a result, industrial heavyweights like fuselage maker Spirit Aerosystems have already laid off workers. Now a...

Airline pilots see plenty of weird things while flying passengers from one place to another, but most of it occurs in the plane's cabin. However, what one pilot spotted outside of his plane has a lot of people talking. His name is Cesar and he flies Airbus A320s for Viva Air, a low-cost Colombian airline. While soaring over Medellin recently, Cesar saw a strange craft and decided to film it. He then shared the footage on TikTok. Skeptics claim it is just a weather balloon and isn't even moving - it just looks to be speeding along because of the...

Recently leaked video sheds light on one of the F-35’s possible weapons configurations, previously dubbed as “beast mode” in a Lockheed Martin infographic. The video, dating back to November of 2018, depicts an F-35 simultaneously firing five air-to-surface missiles against five test targets. At least one of the targets-- a light vehicle-- can be seen moving. Though it is presently unconfirmed where the trial took place and what kind of guided bomb was used, defense expert Ian D’Costa offered some clarifying insight to The Aviationist: “It’s an F-35 at NTTR (Nellis Test and Training Range), I could be wrong, but...