January 1, 2021

NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne Plan Busy RS-25 Test Schedule for 2021 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Hot-fire tests of new RS-25 engine components will resume in 2021 to certify a new manufacturing process during production. Over one hour of engine run-time is planned for the Retrofit 2 series to test an expanded set of new engine parts that serve to achieve a primary objective of the production restart program: improving affordability by applying modern manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing, also called “3-D printing,” to building new engines.

Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to complete two other development engine builds in 2021 that will go into the test stand for subsequent test series, including an all-new build that will demonstrate the first new engine powerhead and nozzle assemblies built for RS-25 engines in nearly two decades. (12/31)

Systems & Technology Research to Help DARPA Create Airspace Mgmt System Testbed (Source: DoD)
Systems and Technology Research has won an $8.3M contract to help the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency study, develop and trial a testing environment in support of a program that aims to ensure effectiveness of airspace operations in future battlespace. The sought environment will serve as a testbed for airspace management systems, airspace planning algorithms and a network of aircraft-tracking sensors under DARPA's Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution program.

STR will perform 58 percent of work under the initiative's airspace deconfliction via integrated sensing and efficient replanning effort in Woburn and Lexington, Massachusetts. Other work locations are in Orlando and Melbourne, Florida; Niskayuna, New York; and Boulder, Colorado. (12/30)

Virgin Galactic Petitions FAA for Waiver to Allow WhiteKnightTwo to Carry Paying Passengers (Source: FAA)
Virgin Galactic, LLC (VG) and TSC, LLC jointly petition for relief from Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations § 91.319(a) to the extent necessary to allow either petitioner to carry persons or property for compensation for hire on the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) aircraft for flights that are not deemed to be a space support vehicle flight. Click here. (12/31)

FAA Announces New Airport Grant Program (Source: FAA)
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation Act includes $2 billion in funds to be awarded as economic relief to eligible U.S. airports and eligible concessions at those airports to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Funds will be distrubuted under the Airport Coronavirus Response Grant Program. The FAA will make grants to all eligible airports that are part of the national airport system, including all commercial service airports, all reliever airports, and some public-owned general aviation airports.

Primary commercial service airports, those with more than 10,000 annual passenger boardings, will share $1.75 billion based on the number of annual boardings, in a similar way to how they currently receive Airport Improvement Program (AIP) entitlement funds. Primary commercial service airports will share an additional $200 million based on the number of annual boardings, and these funds will then be available for these airports to provide relief from rent and minimum annual guarantees to on-airport car rental, on-airport parking, and in-terminal airport concessions.

Airports will provide this relief to each airport concession based on its proportional share of the total annual rent and minimum annual guarantees for the airport. Non-primary commercial service and general aviation airports will share $45 million based on their airport categories, such as National, Regional, Local, and Basic. Of that $45 million, airports that participate in the FAA Contract Tower Program will divide $5 million equally. (12/31)