Aviation News
The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane successfully completed its seventh mission, touching down at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 02:22 a.m. EST on Mar. 7, following 434 days in orbit. The landing marked the conclusion of the program’s first mission to highly elliptical orbit.
Continue reading “X-37B concludes historic High-Orbit mission”
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded Airbus a significant contract to design and build two advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, named Oberon, marking a crucial step in the nation’s pursuit of enhanced space-based Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. The Oberon system, slated for launch in 2027, promises to deliver day-and-night, all-weather surveillance capabilities.
Image: Airbus
Continue reading “U.K. MoD bolsters ISR capabilities with Airbus Oberon satellite contract”
The scene was something out of a disaster movie: doors knocked off their hinges, furniture overturned, and bookshelves toppled, leaving a mess of debris and a lingering question: Is this the future? This was January 2024 on Roi-Namur, the second-largest island in the Kwajalein Atoll, a remote chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,100 kilometers north of the equator. According to a report by Aerospace America, this island, home to around 120 US military personnel and contractors, is crucial for operating rocket launch pads, radars, and telescopes, and it forms a key part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defence Test Site. But this vital location is now facing a very real threat from the rising seas of climate change.
Continue reading “Key U.S. missile test site in Pacific battling rising seas”
In a major boost for Guam’s missile defense posture, the Aegis Guam System successfully intercepted a ballistic missile target off the coast of Andersen Air Force Base. This event, officially designated as Flight Experiment Mission-02 (FEM-02), marks the first time a ballistic missile defense operation has been executed from Guam, and involved collaboration between the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and several other U.S. Department of Defense partners.
Photo: MDA
Continue reading “Aegis Guam System and Exercise Sling Stone: A powerful duo for Guam’s defense”
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7) is set to perform a series of groundbreaking manoeuvres known as aerobraking. This technique, which utilises the drag of the Earth’s atmosphere to alter the spacecraft’s orbit, marks a first for the U.S. Space Force and the X-37B program.
Graphic: Boeing
Continue reading “Space Force embraces innovative aerobraking technique for X-37B mission”