WASHINGTON — SpaceShipTwo successfully flew to the edge of space for the second time Feb. 22, carrying three people for the first time as the company moved closer to beginning commercial operations of the suborbital spaceplane. VSS Unity, as the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle is named, was released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft at 11:53 a.m. [...]
WASHINGTON -- The U.S.-Belgian alliance underpins security, and working together with the other NATO nations, they offer reliability in an unpredictable world, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said yesterday as he welcomed Belgian Defense Minister Didier Reynders to the Pentagon. This was the minister’s first official meeting in the Pentagon in five years, but [...]
WASHINGTON -- The latest survey of active-duty and reserve-component service members’ spouses shows the spouses are, by and large, happy with the military lifestyles they lead. Defense Department officials briefed reporters at the Pentagon yesterday on the results of the surveys, which were conducted in 2017. The survey of active-duty spouses and a similar survey [...]
WASHINGTON -- The U.S.-Belgian alliance underpins security, and working together with the other NATO nations, they offer reliability in an unpredictable world, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said yesterday as he welcomed Belgian Defense Minister Didier Reynders to the Pentagon. This was the minister’s first official meeting in the Pentagon in five years, but [...]
WASHINGTON — As NASA selects payloads it plans to fly on commercial lunar landers, companies developing those spacecraft are skeptical any landers will be ready to fly this year, as the agency desires. NASA announced Feb. 21 that it has identified a dozen science and technology demonstration payloads from within the agency that will be [...]
IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Department of Defense has awarded $10 million in funding to the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), with an option of $20 million more over the upcoming five years to lead the digital future of manufacturing Feb. 21. This award is part of a new multi-year follow-on agreement with a ceiling [...]
Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PATRICK SHANAHAN: Well, welcome. Long time no see. (Laughter.)I think officially this is the first visit in five years, but I think this is our third visit in one week. So I think we're off to a very good start. And I just wanted [...]
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying an Indonesian communications satellite, an Israeli lunar lander and a U.S. Air Force smallsat launched Feb. 21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:45 p.m. Eastern, deploying the Beresheet lunar lander 33 minutes later, and the Nusantara Satu telecom satellite with the S5 experimental [...]
WASHINGTON — Starting as early as next week, Pentagon officials will sit down with members of Congress and staff to go over the details of how the Pentagon would organize the U.S. Space Force within the Department of the Air Force To turn President Trump’s Space Force idea into reality, the Pentagon will need strong [...]
WASHINGTON — In a draft proposal to establish a United States Space Force inside the Department of the Air Force, the Pentagon would ask Congress to approve “special temporary authorities” for the secretary of defense to transfer personnel, programs and other resources from other services to the new branch. The special authorities would extend over [...]
