Watch: Fireball that Streaked Across Hawke’s Bay Sky Likely to Be Burning Space Junk
A bright fireball streaked across the sky over Hawke’s Bay early Thursday morning, prompting witnesses to think it was a plane or meteor. Observers from Wairoa to Napier reported a slow‑moving white object leaving a lingering contrail lasting up to 15 minutes. Analysis by local citizen scientists and the Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium indicated the phenomenon was most likely space debris re‑entering Earth’s atmosphere. No commercial aircraft were tracked in the area at the time.
Brazil Is Poised for Interesting Market Dynamics in 2026 as Its Aviation Sector Enters a New Era
Brazil’s aviation sector is entering a new era in 2026 as its three largest carriers—Azul, GOL and LATAM—have emerged from Chapter 11 restructurings, creating a more rational market landscape. The industry still wrestles with high fuel costs, extensive litigation and lingering...
Telesat Corp (TSAT) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
AST SpaceMobile reported full‑year 2025 revenue of $70.9 million, hitting the top of its guidance, and disclosed a $1.2 billion minimum‑committed revenue backlog anchored by a $175 million prepayment from Saudi Arabia’s STC Group. The company raised over $3.5 billion, boosting cash to $3.9 billion,...
China Space Station Spacewalk: New Tasks Completed
China’s Shenzhou‑21 crew completed a second seven‑hour EVA, installing a new space‑debris protection device on the Tiangong station. Astronauts Zhang Lu and Wu Fei performed the walk with assistance from the station’s robotic arm and fellow crew member Zhang Hongzhan. The mission also...
March 16, 2026 Quick Space Links
A tweet‑sourced report claims that the Shahroud Space Center in northeastern Iran was heavily damaged by U.S. and Israeli air strikes, with 27 sites hit and roughly 70% of its facilities destroyed. Another tweet alleges that the Soviet Union’s 1974...
Europe’s Spectrum Rocket Returns to the Skies with Onward and Upward
German startup Isar Aerospace is set for the second flight of its Spectrum launch vehicle, dubbed “Onward and Upward,” from Andøya Space in Norway on March 19. The mission marks the rocket’s first customer payload flight, carrying five CubeSats and a...
War May Bring Lasting Change to the Airline Business
The ongoing Middle East conflict has disrupted the Gulf’s role as a global aviation super‑connector, forcing Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways to curtail services. A recent drone strike at Dubai International Airport compelled Emirates to cancel flights and even reroute...
Chinese Space Station Astronauts Harvest Space Tomatoes
Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have harvested a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes grown in a small aeroponic cultivation system. The system uses a nutrient mist and full‑spectrum LEDs, enabling water‑efficient plant growth in micro‑gravity. This marks the...
Florida Lawmakers Target ADS-B Use For Landing Fees
Florida lawmakers approved CS/CS/SB 422, prohibiting airports from using ADS‑B surveillance data to calculate landing fees or related charges for Part 91 aircraft weighing 12,499 pounds or less. The bill, cleared by both chambers, heads to Governor Ron DeSantis and would...
United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Long-Term Hub Economics Improves Following Washington Dulles International Airport Renovation Plans
United Airlines stands to benefit from a planned multibillion‑dollar renovation at its Washington Dulles hub. The project includes a 435,000‑square‑foot, 14‑gate concourse slated for later 2026, expanding capacity for United, which already handles about 70% of Dulles traffic. While the...
UK and Germany Meet to Advance Deep Precision Strike Missile Programme to Boost National Security
UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard met German State Secretary Jens Plötner in Berlin to review progress on a joint Deep Precision Strike missile programme. The initiative aims to produce stealth cruise and hypersonic missiles capable of exceeding 2,000 km, with initial...
The Asteroid Ryugu Has All of the Main Ingredients for Life
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft retrieved Ryugu asteroid samples in 2020 after impacting the surface in 2018. Laboratory analysis has now identified all five nucleobase precursors needed for DNA and RNA within the debris. The discovery strengthens the hypothesis that asteroids delivered...
Inside Sir Peter Beck and Rocket Lab’s Sub-$17 Million Mission to Find Life Above Venus
Rocket Lab’s Venus Life Finder (VLF) mission aims to drop a sub‑kilogram probe into the clouds of Venus for a brief 210‑second sampling window, targeting possible biosignatures. The entire venture is slated to cost under $17 million, dramatically cheaper than historic...
The Coming Compute War in Ukraine
Ukrainian forces depend on cloud‑based AI to coordinate massive drone swarms, but Russian electronic‑warfare can sever the uplinks, turning pre‑programmed drones into ineffective assets. Bandwidth constraints and energy shortages expose a critical compute vulnerability, prompting a shift toward a layered...
Joby Aviation Demonstrates Electric Air Taxi Flights Over San Francisco Bay
Joby Aviation completed a series of electric air‑taxi demonstration flights over the San Francisco Bay Area, departing from Oakland International Airport and cruising past the Golden Gate Bridge toward the Marin Headlands. The flights showcased the company’s N545JX prototype operating in...
Tech Stacks, AI, and New Regulations: What Drone Surveyors Need to Know Now
The Commercial UAV News webinar highlighted how drone surveying firms must first secure data‑first workflows before layering AI, adopt a three‑tiered, modular tech stack, and address new regulatory demands. Panelists stressed that clean, structured data and automated pipelines are prerequisites...
Canada Leases Space Port in Bid to Break Reliance on US Rockets Like Musk’s SpaceX
Canada's federal government has signed a ten‑year, C$200 million lease for a private launch facility on the east coast, aiming to develop an independent satellite launch capability. The agreement with Maritime Launch Services will give Canada direct access to sub‑orbital and...
Artemis II Crew ‘Primed’ to Contribute to Scientific Knowledge of Moon, NASA Scientist Says
NASA's Artemis II mission, slated for early April, will send four astronauts on a ten‑day lunar flyby, becoming the first humans to view the Moon’s far side since Apollo. The crew will operate within 6,400‑9,000 km of the surface, capturing wide‑angle imagery,...
ROBOZE Launches ARGO 500 HYPERSPEED MISSION READY Additive Manufacturing Platform
ROBOZE has unveiled the ARGO 500 HYPERSPEED MISSION READY, an additive manufacturing platform tailored for aerospace and defence applications. The system prints high-performance polymers such as SABIC’s ULTEM AM9085F and ROBOZE’s Carbon PEEK, offering weight reduction and corrosion resistance. Enhanced...
RTX Raytheon Enhances SM-3 and SM-6 Production Capacity
RTX Raytheon has finished expanding its Redstone Missile Integration Facility in Alabama, raising Standard Missile‑3 and Standard Missile‑6 production rates by more than 50%. The boost is intended to replenish Pentagon missile stockpiles that were drawn down during recent operations....
Pentagon: F-35s “Vulnerable” Over Iran? Software Stagnation Leaves U.S. Stealth Jets Without Crucial Upgrades
The Pentagon disclosed that F‑35 Lightning II jets conducting strikes in Operation Epic Fury over Iran are still equipped with the older TR‑2 software, as the planned TR‑3 upgrade has been stalled. The TR‑3, part of the Block 4 modernization, promises...
Rising Fuel and Insurance Costs Prompt Oman Air Cargo Surcharge Move
Oman Air Cargo will add a Fuel Surcharge and a War Risk Surcharge to all shipments starting March 18, 2026. The fuel charge will track the US Gulf Coast Jet A1 price per gallon and be reviewed weekly, while the...
L3Harris Honors Goddard Centennial with Advances in Nuclear and Electric Propulsion
L3Harris Technologies commemorated Robert Goddard’s 100‑year rocket milestone by accelerating next‑generation propulsion, including 3D‑printed RS‑25 engines, advanced electric thrusters, and nuclear thermal concepts. The company is hot‑fire testing new RS‑25 units that cut production costs by 30 percent while delivering...
South Korea Promotes Anti-Aircraft Guns for Drone Defense
South Korea’s defense establishment is reviving anti‑aircraft gun systems as a primary tool against the surge of low‑cost drone attacks. Modern gun platforms such as the radar‑equipped K30 Biho and the upcoming Cheonho vehicle employ programmable airburst ammunition to engage...
Australia Plans for ‘Dubai-Style’ Air Taxi Service
Australia’s civil aviation regulator, CASA, announced that it is close to launching a Dubai‑style electric vertical take‑off and landing (eVTOL) air‑taxi service. The agency is drafting licensing rules for piloted passenger‑carrying advanced air mobility (AAM) flights and a safety framework...
NESC Develops Method for Estimating Risk When Reducing NDE
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) created a probabilistic method to estimate the risk of reducing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections on spaceflight hardware. Using a historic database of 33,630 bolt‑hole inspections that yielded six crack‑like findings, the team derived...
How Many Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft Are In Service?
The Boeing 737 MAX has transitioned from a heavily scrutinized program to a cornerstone of the global narrow‑body market, with roughly 2,200 deliveries recorded through February 2026. After accounting for the two aircraft lost in fatal crashes, an estimated 2,198 jets remain in...
France Unveils FLP-T 150 Long-Range Rocket Launcher
France unveiled the FLP‑T 150, a 150 km long‑range guided rocket artillery system developed by ArianeGroup and Thales. The ITAR‑free launcher, mounted on a Mercedes‑Zetros 8×8 truck, carries eight rockets in a single container and uses sub‑decametric GPS/INS for single‑digit meter...
AIAA Celebrates 100 Years of Rocketry on Anniversary of First Rocket Launch
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) unveiled a free, curated collection of 100 technical papers on rocket propulsion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Robert H. Goddard’s first liquid‑fuel rocket test in 1926. The anthology pulls from AIAA’s...
If China Returns to the Moon First, Will Americans Care?
China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030, positioning itself to be the first nation on the Moon since Apollo. The United States, under the Artemis program, has pledged to beat that deadline but still lacks an operational lander...
The Next Phase of Space Ambitions in Texas
In 2023 Texas earmarked $350 million for its space sector, allocating $150 million through the Texas Space Commission to 24 projects and awarding a final $14.15 million grant to Rice University’s Space Institute for a lunar‑technology center. The state also invested $200 million in...
Artemis via the ISS? A Breakout Opportunity for Kickstarting a Sustainable Cislunar Economy
NASA’s new administrator is exploring an “Artemis via ISS” strategy that uses the International Space Station as a low‑Earth‑orbit staging point for lunar missions. By capitalizing on the ISS’s proven habitat, docking, and orbital alignment, the plan reduces reliance on...
Golden Domes, Fragile Firms: The Business Risks of AI-Enabled Space Infrastructure
AI‑driven routing is turning satellite constellations into real‑time, autonomous utilities that allocate bandwidth, imagery and sensing data in milliseconds. While this autonomy makes megaconstellations economically viable, it also embeds opaque decision‑making into models that can prioritize one user over another...
Space ETFs in the Spotlight as Potential SpaceX IPO Looms
Space-focused exchange‑traded funds are gaining momentum as rumors swirl around a potential SpaceX initial public offering that could price the company at roughly $1.75 trillion. The Procure Space ETF, billed as the first pure‑play space fund, has delivered a 100.7% gain...
Iranian "Air Force One" Reportedly Destroyed By Israeli Air Force
Israel’s air force announced it destroyed the Iranian government‑owned Airbus A340‑300, the aircraft used by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for diplomatic and procurement flights. The strike comes amid intensified US‑Israel operations against Iran following the February 28 killing of Iran’s leader. The...
EUROCAE Launches Consultation on VTOL Certification
EUROCAE has opened an open‑consultation on draft guidance ED‑342, which proposes using advanced simulation for handling‑qualities certification of vertical take‑off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The WG‑112 working group approved the draft after peer review on 13 March, and the document outlines...
Air China Cargo Ramps up Glasgow Prestwick Operation
Air China Cargo has upgraded its Chengdu‑Glasgow Prestwick service to a daily schedule, up from four flights per week, responding to surging e‑commerce demand. The route carries Chinese consumer goods into Scotland while exporting premium Scottish products such as salmon,...
NTCSA Signs Helicopter Purchase Agreement with Textron Inc. (TXT)
On March 12, the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) signed a purchase agreement with Textron for seven Bell 407GX helicopters. The aircraft will support utility operations tied to South Africa’s national electricity transmission network. The announcement coincided with other Textron sales,...
Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) Secures $111.5 Million Naval Contract Order
Lockheed Martin received a $111.5 million fixed‑price contract from the Naval Air Systems Command to supply the F‑35 Drag Chute System for Lot 18‑19 aircraft deliveries supporting non‑U.S. Department of War participants and foreign military sales. The order reinforces the company’s role...
The Boeing Company (BA) Awarded $2.34 Billion Air Force Contract Modification
Boeing was awarded a $2.34 billion option‑exercise modification to its Air Force E‑7A Rapid Prototype Airborne Mission Segment contract. The work will be performed at facilities in Washington, Oklahoma City, Huntsville and Heath, with completion targeted for the third quarter of...
Sweden Opens Esrange to Military Orbital Launches
On March 16, 2026 SSC Space signed a SEK 209 million agreement with Sweden’s Defense Materiel Administration to build a military satellite launch capability at Esrange. The contract includes infrastructure, tracking, security and a launch control centre, targeting operational status by 2028....
Planning Titan Entry? New Lab Tests Flag Nitrogen-Driven Heat Shield Debris Risks
University of Illinois researchers using the Plasmatron X hypersonic wind tunnel discovered that nitrogen‑rich atmospheres cause unsteady, violent spallation of the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) heat shield, unlike the steady particle ejection seen in oxygen‑containing air. High‑speed imaging showed intermittent...
Mott MacDonald Boosts Aviation Business
Mott MacDonald has reinforced its aviation, maritime and offshore practice by appointing Jason Buckland as aviation director and Kim Yates as sustainable aviation and green ports market lead. Buckland brings senior roles at British Airways, Etihad, GE and Arcadis, and will steer the...
Emirates Reroutes Flights After Drone Attack on Dubai’s Airport
Emirates responded to a drone strike at Dubai International Airport by rerouting flights to nearby hubs, temporarily suspending operations at the main terminal. The incident forced a shutdown for safety inspections, prompting the carrier to shift services to Abu Dhabi...
Kenya Airways Boosts Cargo Ops via B747 Capacity Partnership
Kenya Airways has added a Boeing 747‑400 freighter through a capacity agreement with Terra Avia, raising its cargo lift from roughly 70 tonnes to about 180 tonnes. The airline plans to push capacity beyond 250 tonnes as part of a broader push to position...
Honeywell Launches HGuide I700 IMU for High-Precision Sensing & Navigation
Honeywell Aerospace introduced the HGuide i700, a commercially available inertial measurement unit that delivers near‑navigation‑grade performance without requiring a license. The IMU leverages the proven HG3900 sensor suite in a compact, low‑power package designed for GNSS‑denied operations across air, land...
China Completes Two Launches Today
China launched two missions today from separate interior spaceports. A Long March 6A lifted a military remote‑sensing satellite from Taiyuan, while a Kuaizhou‑11 placed eight satellites into orbit from Jiuquan. State media gave no details on the payloads or where the...
Emirates Flight Returns to Thiruvananthapuram After Security Incident in Dubai
An Emirates flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai turned back after Dubai International Airport was shut following a security incident. The aircraft, carrying 353 passengers and 19 crew, departed at 4:40 am and returned to its origin at 8:40 am. A second Emirates...
Air India, AI Express to Operate 48 Flights Connecting Middle East Cities on Monday
Air India and its low‑cost arm Air India Express will operate a combined 48 scheduled and non‑scheduled flights to the Middle East on Monday. The carriers will run ten flights to Jeddah, including return services from Delhi and Mumbai and...
Global Operational Orbital Launch Vehicles Market Analysis 2026
As of March 2026 the operational orbital launch market is defined by rockets that have proven repeatable service, not merely design concepts. The United States leads commercial reuse with Falcon 9 and maintains a strong national‑security lineup including Vulcan and Falcon Heavy, while...