DefenseScoop — The Department of the Air Force has established seven new portfolio acquisition executive (PAE) offices that will oversee capability development moving forward.
NASA continues to work toward February launch of Artemis 2
SpaceNews — NASA says it is continuing to prepare for a possible Artemis 2 launch as soon as February, but with remarkably little publicity by the agency for the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years.
Space Force looks to expand West Coast heavy launch capabilities
DefenseNews — Space Launch Delta 30 issued a request for information, seeking to establish infrastructure for heavy and super-heavy vertical launch vehicles to address critical gaps in launch capabilities at Vandenberg. If developed, SLC-14 would become the first dedicated super-heavy launch complex on the West Coast.
Aerospace Names Former Northrop Grumman Executive Blake Bullock as EVP
GovCon Wire — As executive vice president, Bullock will lead Aerospace’s customer-facing organizations, research and laboratory capabilities, engineering backplane, and technology investment activities.
Space Force moves to standardize satellites with ‘Handle 2.0’ contract
SpaceNews — The U.S. Space Force tapped Falcon ExoDynamics, a small California-based defense contractor, to help turn a modular satellite interface known as Handle from a research prototype developed by the Aerospace Corporation, into a commercially supported standard for military space missions.
ULA Eyes Vulcan’s Second Space Force Launch Amid Major Leadership Change
Air and Space Forces Magazine — United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to launch military payloads for the Space Force.
Aerospace Supports Satellite Concept for Imaging Apophis Asteroid Flyby
The Aerospace Corporation is providing support to university students’ design and launch of a satellite that will observe and photograph asteroid Apophis during its upcoming flyby of Earth.
Artemis II: NASA Astronauts Gear Up for a Journey Around the Moon
CNN — Artemis II will send a group of four astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — on a trip around the moon, possibly as early as February.
Space Force Begins Base Network Overhaul as Cybersecurity Demands Grow
SpaceNews — The overhaul aims to provide resilient, high-throughput connectivity across all 14 U.S. Space Force bases. “This modernization effort will upgrade both classified and unclassified network infrastructure,” the Air Force said, including the use of zero trust security architectures and support for cloud-based applications.
GPS is vulnerable to jamming—here’s how we might fix it
Ars Technica — “Sooner or later, we’re gonna see bad things happening here,” said Aerospace’s John Langer. The U.S. Space Force’s SpaceWerx organization, the FAA, and the Defense Innovation Unit are running challenges to support alternative technologies.