NASA took the first step Friday in what it hopes to be a new era for human space exploration as the agency sent the Orion capsule into a nearly four-hour orbit to evaluate its potential for future missions via Boeing‘s Space Launch System. Engineers for NASA and Orion constructor Lockheed Martin …

Ball Aerospace & Technologies and NASA will fly a set of experimental Defense Department scientific payloads on the planned Green Propellant Infusion Mission for 2016 under a $3.4 million payload integration contract. The company said Wednesday the DoD Space Experiments Review Board selected the Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer Reflight, Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer and Space Object Self-tracker payloads to …

United Launch Alliance has launched the AFSPC-4 mission aboard a Delta IV rocket as part of the U.S. Air Force‘s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to deliver military and government payloads to space. ULA said Tuesday that the launch, its 85th since December 2006, was supported by an Aerojet Rocketdyne engine and …

NASA is poised to test an engine for the Space Launch System, a rocket the agency and Boeing are building to send the Orion manned spacecraft into deep space. Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi positioned the RS-25 rocket engine on a testing platform Thursday for developmental and …

The Delta 2 rocket built by United Launch Alliance has carried a NASA carbon-monitoring satellite into space Wednesday, marking the rocket’s 51st launch mission for the space agency. “It is our honor to launch this important mission that will gather the scientific data to better understand planet earth,” Jim Sponnick, …

A team comprised of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Aerojet Rocketdyne has tested a thruster with “green” fuel technology in a space lab environment as part of NASA‘s Green Propellant Infusion Mission program. The project’s goal is to demonstrate the AF-M315E eco-friendly propulsion system as an alternative for the …

Lockheed Martin and Boeing’s United Launch Alliance joint venture has launched a National Reconnaissance Office payload intended to support national defense programs aboard a commercially-developed rocket. The Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle 501 lifted off with the NROL-39 and the auxiliary Government Experimental Multi-Satellite payload on Thursday from the …

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has awarded a subcontract to Quest Thermal Group LLC to develop thermal insulation technology for maintaining temperatures of spacecraft and subsystems during NASA human spaceflight missions. NASA intends to use Quest Thermal’s integrated multi-layer insulation for the Green Propellant Infusion Mission and Ball Aerospace will test the technology, Ball Aerospace …

Boeing Co. is planning a test flight of its crew aircraft in 2016 as the company aims to work with NASA’s commercial crew program, the Aviation Week reported Monday. Guy Norris writes NASA’s commercial crew integrated capability program is intended for the United States to engineer a human space launch …

The International Astronomical Union has approved an official name for the Didymos asteroid system’s smaller moon that will serve as the target of an experiment by NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off a fresh effort to develop a new aircraft propulsion system that could propel an aircraft up to hypersonic speeds. DARPA said Friday it started the Advanced Full Range Engine program in search of a turbine-based combined cycle engine concept for use in low-speed operations and …

Rick Randall serves as vice president of business development at AECOM. He was previously the business development VP at URS Corp. in January 2015, with responsibility in business development initiatives in the national and military intelligence markets. Randall also served as a national security executive at Oceus Networks, business development …