Two days after announcing the signing of private contracts for next-generation rocket propulsion concept studies, United Launch Alliance CEO Michael Gass said the company has tasked the Russian manufacturer of the RD-180 engine to speed up production to mitigate against potential supply disruptions resulting from strained United States-Russia relations. He also said the company has the license and capacity to build the engine domestically, if needed.
Space Alert
June 18, 2014 |
Inside the Pentagon
June 12, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
U.S. Africa Command will have much-needed communications coverage over Western Africa within the next two months -- and likely sooner -- due to an innovative satellite communications contract the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center awarded late last week.
June 06, 2014 |
Daily News
The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center this week initiated the first phase of a two-part process to determine whether other companies can compete against prime contractor Lockheed Martin to build the next-generation Global Positioning System satellite vehicle and navigation payload.
June 05, 2014 |
Daily News
The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program has increased the number of remaining planned launches through the end of the next decade from 89 to 100, a 12 percent increase -- expected to cost $2.5 billion -- made in response to revised satellite vehicle requirements from Air Force Space Command.
June 02, 2014 |
Daily News
The Air Force has awarded a much-anticipated development contract for Space Fence, choosing Lockheed Martin over Raytheon to build the next-generation space situational awareness system.
May 29, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
For three years the Air Force has tried to defund its Operationally Responsive Space office in favor of taking the effort's principles of rapid space capability development and applying them throughout all of its space programs.
May 29, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
As part of a larger move to significantly upgrade its Space Situational Awareness infrastructure, the Air Force is changing the way it manages its space observation assets and giving all responsibility for that management to the Space and Missile Systems Center.
May 29, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
Despite its ability to make some predictions about the nature of the space environment, the Air Force does not know the true scope and character of most of the objects that occupy low Earth orbit -- and it will not know that information until it has implemented a modernized space situational awareness infrastructure.
May 23, 2014 |
Daily News
The Senate Armed Service Committee's version of the fiscal year 2015 defense authorization bill includes provisions that would prohibit the Air Force from retiring any legacy E-3 battle management aircraft or transferring MC-12 spy planes.
May 22, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Air Force officials have said they are committed to developing a follow-on weather satellite system in the near-term, but some in industry are concerned that if the service does not act soon, it will find itself with a capability gap at the end of the decade.
May 22, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The Air Force should have a plan in process to better utilize its on-orbit Space-Based Infrared System satellites within the next few months, the service's top space official said this week.
May 22, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Lockheed Martin's space technology research wing is developing a ground-based network of telescopes that can see objects as small as 50 centimeters in geostationary orbit. The technology is part of the company's bid to take over operation of the Air Force's two ground observatories in Hawaii and New Mexico.
May 22, 2014 |
Inside the Pentagon
The State and Commerce departments jointly released language last week that would deregulate the export of most commercial, scientific and civil satellites, along with their parts and components.
May 20, 2014 |
Daily News
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The Air Force's top space official wants the service to pursue the production of a fully domestic, next-generation rocket engine.
May 20, 2014 |
Daily News
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The United Launch Alliance has not yet received any firm indication that its supply of RD-180 engines to power its Atlas V launch vehicle will be cut off, the company's president confirmed on May 19.
May 19, 2014 |
Daily News
The Air Force's sixth Global Positioning System IIF satellite was boosted into orbit on Friday night and should be operational within about 30 days, according to service officials.
May 15, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
The Air Force Research Lab's Space Weather Center of Excellence is asking for industry and academic proposals to advance its understanding of the impact of the space environment on Air Force systems.
May 14, 2014 |
Daily News
The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Atlas V's Russian-built RD-180 engine and an escalating need for the United Launch Alliance to lower its costs in order to meet rising launch competition have pushed ULA to consider the implications of scaling down from two launch vehicle families to just one, a top Boeing space executive told reporters on May 13.
May 09, 2014 |
Daily News
The U.S. Federal Claims Court on May 8 rescinded an earlier injunction that prevented U.S. government agencies and the United Launch Alliance from doing business with the Russian company that supplies rocket engines for ULA's Atlas V launch vehicle.
May 08, 2014 |
Inside the Air Force
The U.S. Federal Claims Court confirmed this week that a preliminary injunction restricting purchases from NPO Energomash, a Russian company that supplies engines for United Launch Alliance rockets, does not prohibit U.S. government agencies from conducting such transactions directly with ULA.