Industry News

An ICF International subsidiary has secured a potential four-year, $36.8 million contract to help the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises carry out its work to plan, organize and launch different types of events. ICF Mostra will also provide event management services to EC directorates-general for climate action, agriculture and rural development, mobility and transport, energy and internal […] More

SpaceX has announced plans to fly an unmanned space vehicle to Mars by 2018 as part of its Red Dragon Mars mission, Reuters reported Wednesday. Irene Klotz writes NASA will offer technical support to SpaceX on its mission to land Dragon 2 spacecraft in Mars in exchange for entry, descent and landing information that the […] More

NASA has chosen 341 Small Business Innovation Research and 58 Small Business Technology Transfer proposals on space-related research and development for Phase I negotiations on contracts potentially worth $49.7 million. The selected proposals will receive six-month contracts worth up to $125,000 and support the development of technologies in fields including aeronautics, science, human exploration and space technology, NASA said […] More

A team led by a joint venture of Thales Group and Finmeccanica has received approximately $19.2 million in funds from the French government to conduct research and development work over two years on an autonomous airship. Thales Alenia Space will collaborate with French companies CNIM, Solutions F, Airstar Aerospace and Tronico-Alcen on the structure, electric propulsion system […] More

Mitre and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have formed an alliance as part of their efforts to help address national security, defense and cyber challenges of their U.S. and Australian government clients. The partnership allows the two nonprofit organizations to exchange subject matter expertise in the research and strategic assessment, systems engineering and integration and scientific and technology areas, Mitre said Monday. “Australia […] More

NASA‘s Glenn Research Center has awarded its first commercial license to AirFlare under the space agency’s startup support initiative, allowing the company to sell a Glenn-patented health monitoring headgear. NASA said Tuesday Glenn originally developed the Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis technology to track astronauts’ oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production rates during exercise. Under Startup NASA, Tennessee-based startup AirFlare will work to further […] More

Ericsson and the Brazilian communications ministry have partnered to establish a laboratory to explore the potential applications of Internet of Things technology in agriculture, rainforest protection, disaster monitoring and prevention and energy production. The company said Monday the Networked Security Lab will be part of the Ericsson Innovation Center that aims to drive IoT innovation across Brazil and other Latin American […] More

General Dynamics subsidiary NASSCO has christened the second of five ECO-class tankers it builds for American Petroleum Tankers in the former’s San Diego shipyard. The Magnolia State is one of five 610-foot tankers that are designed to feature a 330,000-barrel cargo capacity and support future LNG fuel-gas system installation, General Dynamics said Monday. The company added that the five-tanker […] More

Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, Inmarsat senior vice president for U.S. government strategy and policy, has said the integration of commercial and military satellite communications systems will provide ubiquity of access to warfighters. Cowen-Hirsch writes in a blog post published Monday that industry seeks to support military operations through the Satcom as a Service model, which works to provide global connectivity and eliminate challenges associated with varied networks. “Warfighters […] More