U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

By Brian Everstine
Boeing has been awarded an $18.2 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to mature autonomous refueling.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
The demonstrator consists of two 6U cubesats designed by NRO’s advanced systems and tech directorate to support an “experimental technology research mission.”
Satellites

By Vivienne Machi
While the Space Force invests billions of dollars into modernizing its sites, providers are intrigued by an alternate model: mobile launchpads at sea.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The three-year initiative will develop an automated boom that uses relative navigation for airborne refueling missions.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Guy Norris
Pratt & Whitney is planning further development of rotating detonation engine (RDE) technology following “positive test results” from a series of ground tests.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
AFSOC is looking to go big with a new autonomy effort, moving from solely focusing on using MQ-9 Reapers as host to its C-130 variants.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
The Pioneer spacecraft integrates with Varda’s W-Series reentry capsule, which brings back goods made in space.
Commercial Space

By Guy Norris
The award follows the completion of tests of the fully integrated VR35K-A propulsion system.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
Boeing F-15s are getting anti-ship standoff weapons as the Air Force looks to use machine learning to improve tracking of targets at sea.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Vivienne Machi
The El Segundo, California-based company’s W-2 capsule carries a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Commercial Space

By Steve Trimble
Quantum entanglement is perhaps a fitting metaphor for the NGAD Platform.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
The “Gravitas” mission is funded via a mixture of private capital and government funds.
Satellites

By Vivienne Machi
The Prometheus effort began in 2018 to perform science and tech experiments in the extreme reentry environment through a low-cost, high-cadence flight testbed.
Commercial Space

By Vivienne Machi
The U.S. needs nuclear propulsion to power spacecraft beyond geostationary orbit for human space exploration and dynamic space operations.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
Over the past half-century, the U.S. has introduced over 20 efforts to harness nuclear power and propulsion for space operations, only to cancel all of them.
Operations & Safety

By Garrett Reim
The UAV is based on Silent Arrow’s autonomous GD-2000 cargo glider drone.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of cobalt that generates heat as it decays.
Space Exploration

By Brian Everstine
AFRL’s Global Lightning prototyping effort began in 2018.
Satellites

By Guy Norris
Sierra Space will study a scaled-up version of its Ghost logistics supply spacecraft concept.
Operations & Safety

By Ben Goldstein
Autonomy is coming to commercial aviation. Its first stop: the Cessna Caravan.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Vivienne Machi
The demonstration saw Northrop Grumman’s hybrid satcom terminal connect with a ViaSat-3 F1 satellite in Geosynchronous orbit at Ka frequencies.
Satellites

By Graham Warwick
Piasecki Aircraft has conducted the first tethered hover flights of the Ares tilt-duct vertical-takeoff-and-landing demonstrator.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) recently cut the ribbon on its new Collaborative Automation for Manufacturing Systems Laboratory.
Emerging Technologies

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force has proposed a high-altitude balloon program as an option for the broader Replicator initiative to accelerate new autonomous systems.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Vivienne Machi
The Pentagon is exploring using commercial launch vehicles for point-to-point delivery by the 2030s.
Space