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Information technology is responsible for improving NASA's Constellation program by modeling and simulation, thereby making the spacecrafts safer and more cost effective.

NASA's restructured Fundamental Aeronautics program is focused on making quieter future subsonic and supersonic aircraft. Air transportation industry is facing problem of noise levels and all aircraft manufacturers are looking at quieter aircrafts.

The article presents that phone calls, mail and fax are outdated which underlines the importance of the information technology like Internet for defense and aerospace suppliers.

The lunar program to return humans to the moon by 2020 appears to have suffered a setback following the first Obama space budget allocation to NASA. This was revealed by the acting administrator of NASA Chris Scolese on 19 May 2009, but he reiterated that development work on the Ares V would continue unabated.

NASA and the European Space Agency are planning to come together in their outer-planet exploration missions. Individual spacecrafts would visit the four largest moons of Jupiter by 2026 while a joint mission is planned to Titan and Enceladus, both moons of Saturn.

Pentagon's decision to go along with Boeing's request for more time and thus canceling the contract or punting the selection to the next administration has disappointed many including Northrop Grumman. The process that has gone on for seven years has become more complex and emotional and is pushing back the much needed replacement of the venerable KC-135 tanker.

The crew on the International Space Station (ISS) is to give a full inspection to the solar array rotary joint after having recovered time lost on the last mission.

The harnessing of the high-altitude long-endurance UAV Ikhana by civil agencies for the purposes of fire fighting, weather forecasting, and global warning research is discussed.

There have been many lessons learnt from the successes and especially the failures of the Orbital Express mission, for future satellite servicing and this has been examined in this article

The typical altitude of the Department of Defense's hand-launched Raven unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is roughly 300 ft, but if demand arises on missions, then it is even flown lower to assist the mission and serve as binoculars too.

The analysis has indicated that the roll problem that caused SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket to fall short of orbit was due to an unexpected coupling between the thrust vector control system and the sloshing of fuel in the rocket's second stage. The SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk has given the reasons for the failure of the second launch attempt.

The upgrades for the Hubble telescope would help astronomers for future exploration before it retires in 2010. A key issue in the decision to insert the long-planned Hubble mission into a tight final-assembly sequence for the International Space Station was its impact on the flights test schedule for the Ares I rocket under development for the next phase of the US human space exploration.

The first flight of the U.S. Air Force's (USAF's) spacecraft in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite network has been launched on August 15, 2010. The satellite will later be moved to an operational orbit, and is to be ready for deployment in early 2011.

The decision of the French armaments agency DGA to embargo the original software for Europe's VEGA launcher has led to ELV developing new guidance and control software. The original software was embargoed due to its potential use in ballistic missiles.

The search for life or evidence of past life in the Solar system is to be one of the main favored NASA science missions to be recommended by the National Academies. Details of some of the various missions that focus on astrobiology are highlighted.

The discovery of lunar water or water on the moon has opened up various avenues for exploration and offered various opportunities for space engineers. The biggest focus now will be on developing techniques for retrieving water ice from the surface of the moon.

The unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) of Japan is all set for its first cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station (ISS) after passing the NASA flight readiness review. The HTV will be spending about six weeks attached to the ISS and two days after release will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

The article discusses the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the first program in NASA's Living With A Star Program, which has been launched to provide in-depth, real-time data about the sun. The SDO, during its five-year mission, will image the sun with greater frequency and provide insights into the causes of the solar cycle.

The controversial decision taken by NASA administrator Michael Griffin, to base the Ares launch systems on heritage space shuttle hardware rather than on U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles or new rockets, is discussed. He insists that decisions on the International Space Station's future and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) program will have be made by mid-2009.

A report of the Spacecraft Crew Survival Integrated Investigation Team on the final moments of the space shuttle Columbia crew before they crashed was released by NASA on December 30, 2008. Recommendations in the report regarding spacesuit and vehicle seat design are being investigated by NASA's Orion program in order to improve chances of crew survival in similar future missions.

The future of NASA's lunar exploration program remains uncertain following differences of opinion between the Bush administration and Congress over its sanction.

The safety of UAVs has come under scrutiny following the Predator mishap in Arizona last year with the Homeland and Security Department and the FAA calling for enhanced training for pilots .

NASA has awarded a $ 1.125 billion to Boeing for the production of Ares I upper stage. The new work would produce job opportunities to many managers at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

The space agencies from various countries are finalizing a draft of first principles for future international cooperation in space exploration, expected to be released in early April 2007. The Kyoto working draft outlines the mechanisms for coordinating future exploration mission to avoid duplication, also including multilateral and bilateral coordination.

Space Exploration Technologies (SapceX) in 2006 is making a series of design and processing changes to ensure a successful outcome for the second launch of its Falcon vehicle after a mishap board pinpointed a corroded aluminum nut as the cause of failure of the first launch on March 24, 2006. The next Falcon 1 is expected to be launched from Kwajalein in November 2006 would carry the Naval Research Laboratory's TacSat-1 spacecraft.

Intelsat's purchase of PanAmSat nearly doubles Intelsat's fleet of 27 communications satellites, making it the leader in fixed satellite services and thus putting pressure on smaller companies to join together or specialize to stay afloat in a marketplace characterized by excess supply.

The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics have urged the Congress to increase the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget for unmanned aircraft and create a testbed in Alaska to test them before integrating into the national air space.

The US Air Force (USAF) is working on striking a balance between the need to replace the aging ground sensors and the cost of restructured Space-Based Surveillance System (SBSS) program to observe the satellites. USAF is developing the SBSS 'Pathfinder' satellite known as SBSS Block-10 to fill the gap till the full SBSS constellation is launched which would scan the geostationary orbit with optical sensors.

The article addresses the problems faced by the European Space Agency's (ESA) first rover mission to Mars, ExoMars, in relation to its specified weight limits. As currently envisioned, the ExoMars lander and rover each will carry 11 science instruments. However, this configuration would be unlikely to survive a descoping, and the package is overweight as it is. A payload confirmation review is underway to determine the best way to accomplish ExoMars science goals while maintaining margins for a program at the current stage in development.

The article reports that the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been partnering with technology manufacturers as part of its commitment to reduce the human and environmental impact of subsonic and supersonic aircraft noise. It states that the agency is building the N+1 and N+2 aircraft with subsonic fixed wing. It mentions that NASA is relying much of its expectations on the Ultra-High Bypass cycle technology being developed by Pratt & Whitney.

The article reports that Pentagon's second-in-command is shifting the focus of the U.S. Defense Department's work to counter improvised explosive devices away from short-term solutions toward more basic research to mimic the effort focused on developing the first atomic bomb. The devices range from sophisticated underground mines activated by pressure plates to grenades strapped underneath vehicles with wires connecting their pins to the wheels. Explosive devices can also be detected visually through the use of various remote-imaging technologies. INSET: BLIND SPOT.