Aviation and Space Exploration

This month Aviation Week reported on the first unmanned air vehicle to fly powered by a hydrogen-fueled propulsion system.

AeroVironment’s Global Observer GO-1 long-endurance unmanned vehicle flew for four hours and climbed to 5,000 ft. above sea level in a recent flight.

Read the full article for information about the GO-1 design and future testing demonstrations.

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Troubles continued between Congress and NASA this month as NASA officials told lawmakers that “they cannot build the replacement for the space shuttle that Congress wants on the budget and deadline they were given.”

NASA has been charged to create a new heavy-lift rocket system and retire the current space shuttle. Click here for the article detailing the challenges NASA faces with the plan passed by Congress last year.

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Finally, two stories related to international space news. First, an article from Bloomberg describes Iran’s plans to launch a domestically built satellite into orbit by March of this year. Read more

Second, an article reports on the difficulties facing India’s space agency after a failed vehicle launch on Christmas day 2010. ISRO, India’s space agency, lost a rocket and a major satellite in its most recent flight attempt.

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