Space & Missile Defense Report

The U.S. Air Force launched the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on its fifth mission Sept. 7. Dodging Hurricane Irma, the Boeing [BA]-built unmanned reusable spaceplane lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket […]

NASA is gearing up to request industry proposals for using robotic landers to place small payloads on the moon, an agency official said Sept. 7. “We’re preparing for the solicitation […]

Lockheed Martin [LMT], which recently lost a competition to mature designs for the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), announced Aug. 30 that it has chosen not to challenge the […]

Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James expressed opposition Sept. 6 to a House-passed proposal to create a space corps within the Air Force Department, saying the new organization […]

Boeing [BA] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] have edged out Lockheed Martin [LMT] for contracts to mature designs for the Ground-based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the replacement for the Air Force’s aging, nuclear-armed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic […]

Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] and Orbital ATK [OA] both announced late Aug. 21 that they have joined the Northrop Grumman [NOC] team that will compete against Boeing [BA] to develop the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent […]

Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon [RTN] received contracts Aug. 23 to mature designs for the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), a replacement for the U.S. Air Force’s aging, nuclear-armed, air-launched cruise missile (ALCM). […]

The Orbital ATK [OA] Minotaur IV rocket that will launch the Air Force Operationally Responsive Space 5 (ORS-5) space-tracking satellite is also carrying two secondary payloads from Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and […]

With NASA gearing up to launch its last Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-M), the agency has begun studying what its next generation of space communications satellites might look like. One […]