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A pair of switches that control the fuel supply to the engines were set to "cutoff" moments before the crash of Air India Flight 171, according to a preliminary report from India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau released early Saturday in India. A total of 260 people were killed when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after it took off from Ahmedabad last month. Indian investigators determined the jet was properly configured and lifted off normally. But three seconds after takeoff, the engines' fuel switches were cut off. It's not clear why. According to the report, data from the flight recorders...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Corp. will build three unmanned X-47B aircraft and their associated systems under a $1 billion contract awarded Wednesday. The contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is part of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems demonstration program, intended to produce the technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering munitions. The three vehicles will be assembled at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. Company officials, however, do not foresee a large increase in employment at the site due to this contract, said Jim Hart, Northrop spokesman. The X-47B is expected to begin...

The Federal Aviation Administration will authorize test sites for drone aircraft in upstate New York, New Jersey and at least eight other states, the agency said on Monday, but integrating the aircraft into the nation’s airspace, set by Congress for 2015, will be phased in gradually. The agency picked six institutions to operate test locations, which will explore how to set safety standards, how to train and certify their ground-based pilots, how to ensure that the aircraft will operate safely even if they lose their radio links with the ground and, most of all, how to replace the traditional method...

Executive Order on Protecting The United States From Certain Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Security & Defense Issued on: January 18, 2021 Share: All News By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that additional actions are necessary to ensure the security of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) owned, operated, and controlled by the Federal Government; to secure the integrity of American infrastructure, including America’s National Airspace System (NAS); to protect our law enforcement and warfighters; and to maintain...

House Republicans are calling on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to expedite a national security review of Chinese drone manufacturers like Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovations Sciences and Technologies Company Limited (DJI Technologies) pursuant to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. In a letter to ODNI signed by representatives Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; Rick Crawford, R-Ark.; and John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the lawmakers requested timely execution of the review as drone technology quickly accelerates. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month prioritizing the accelerated integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into U.S. national airspace. But before that fully...

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.