Tag: Aerospace
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Hey, kids: Put a rocket in space and win a million dollars in Base 11 Space Challenge
News Brief: Students from colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada are being recruited for the Base 11 Space Challenge, a $1 million competition to encourage the development of a liquid-fueled, single-stage rocket powerful enough to reach 100 kilometers (62 miles) in altitude. That height marks the internationally accepted boundary of space. Deadline for…
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Bugged by budget cuts, state aerospace chief John Thornquist says he’s ‘moving on’
John Thornquist, the director of Washington state’s Office of Aerospace, visits Chinook Enterprises in Mount Vernon, Wash., in August 2016. (Chinook Enterprises Photo) The head of Washington state’s Office of Aerospace, John Thornquist, says he’s returning to the private sector next month due to frustrations over state budget cuts. “I’m not trying to leave in…
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Northrop Grumman’s $7.8B deal to acquire Orbital ATK fuels aerospace consolidation
Northrop Grumman is known for stealth airplanes such as the B-2 bomber, the X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle and the B-21 long-range strike bomber. (Northrop Grumman Photo) Northrop Grumman’s purchase of Orbital ATK for $7.8 billion will create a company involved in projects ranging from America’s next stealth bomber and ballistic missile system to the…
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NASA and Honeywell boost supersonic flight by tackling sonic boom problem
An artist’s concept of a possible Low Boom Flight Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) X-plane design. (Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin) The historic Concorde supersonic airliner set a record flying from New York to Seattle in just under four hours, but after retiring at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, no successors were waiting in the wings…
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Boeing wins go-ahead from DARPA to build and test XS-1 military space plane by 2020
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s Phantom Express XS-1 space plane in flight. (Boeing Illustration) The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says it has selected the Boeing Co. to develop and test its XS-1 hypersonic space plane, using a design now known as the Phantom Express. Boeing won out over Northrop Grumman and Masten Space Systems…
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The Year in Aerospace and Science: Why gravitational waves wowed the world
A visualization shows gravitational waves produced by two orbiting black holes. (NASA Illustration / C. Henze) The biggest science story of 2016 was a century in the making, and will surely earn someone a Nobel Prize. The first detection of gravitational waves from the crash of two black holes is important not only for the…
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Aerospace startups use Starburst’s shark tank in Seattle to keep their dreams afloat
Seattle-based MatterFab is working on a 3-D printer that looks like a walk-in freezer but can use laser microwelding to make metal components out of powder. (Credit: MatterFab) Some aerospace ventures came to Starburst Accelerator’s shark tank in Seattle today to find investors. Others were looking for customers. But unlike the TV version of “Shark…
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Starburst Venture raises $200 million for aerospace startups (and heads for Seattle)
Starburst Ventures aims to back startups that can follow in SpaceX’s footsteps. (SpaceX Photo) On the eve of its first event in Seattle, Starburst Accelerator says it has set up a $200 million venture fund to invest in aviation and aerospace startups over the next three years. Starburst Venture, formed in collaboration with Singapore-based Leonie…
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Sisterhood is powerful when it comes to Seattle’s commercial space scene
SpaceX’s Aarti Matthews, Blue Origin’s Erika Wagner and Vulcan Aerospace’s Cassie Lee field questions during an “Off-Planet Inc.” panel at the Museum of Flight’s SpaceFest. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle) The billionaires who run Blue Origin and SpaceX – Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk – may be locked in an outer-space rivalry, but the engineers who get…
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Brooke Owens Fellowships will boost women in aerospace (and we’re helping)
Brooke Owens, a pilot and space policy expert, died of cancer in June at the age of 35. She was an alumna of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. (Credit: Brooke Owens Fellowship Program) Space industry pioneer Brooke Owens didn’t live long enough to reach the final frontier, but her life has inspired a fellowship program that will…