Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom

“Over the life of the mission, MAVEN supported more than 8 percent of all of our relay sessions planned by our rovers and landers, but it accounted for nearly 18 percent of all of the data returned, illustrating its usefulness when returning large data volumes,” said Tiffany Morgan, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The network still has plenty of capacity to support the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, with some minor caveats. “We do have remaining assets, and those assets have adjusted the amount of data that they return, and the rovers have also adjusted their planning for how they…

A soccer ball floats in microgravity in this March 2, 2026, picture from the International Space Station. The space station crew tested soccer balls to study how internal mass affects motion and stability in microgravity. The findings have improved understanding of how embedded technologies, including match-ball sensors, can influence performance during play. Through research aboard the International Space Station and technology developed for exploration, NASA continues to demonstrate how discoveries made for space can benefit people on Earth—including athletes and fans participating in the world’s most popular sport. Image credit: NASA source

The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. A new type of submarine that appears to lack a traditional sail has emerged in China. The same shipyard launched a smaller ‘sailless’ submarine — a technology demonstrator — eight years ago. More recently, a top Chinese shipbuilding conglomerate put forward a concept for an uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) with a broadly comparable hullform. Designs of this kind can offer benefits in terms of speed, maneuverability, and reduced acoustic signature, but also have major drawbacks. TWZ has obtained imagery of the submarine…

The Pentagon recently named the winners of the Lethality Prize Challenge in the Drone Dominance program, a $1.1 billion effort to expand domestic drone production and reduce the cost of commercial drones for military use.The Defense Innovation Unit announced in a LinkedIn post last month that the winners — Bravo Ordnance, Kela Technologies, Kraken Kinetics, Mountain Horse Solutions and Northrop Grumman — developed “cost-effective, mass-producible, and easily integrated lethal payloads for small drones.”According to the program’s Industry Day presentation, military officials reviewed submissions from 17 vendors. Evaluators examined both the payloads themselves and how they interfaced with various Electronic Safe…

Log-in here if you’re already a subscriber A project that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of electric flight at altitudes typically flown by commercial airliners has performed its first crewed flights with the battery technology it believes will power it into the stratosphere. The nonprofit organization Helios Horizon described the June 5 flights at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport in Florida as marking “the first flight of a human-piloted electric plane powered by solid-state batteries.”  Long seen as the “holy grail” of battery technology for aviation, solid-state batteries offer much higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion cells along with significantly reduced thermal…

The closest analog to what Blue Origin is attempting to do, therefore, concerns the rebuild of Space Launch Complex-40, which was largely destroyed by the AMOS-6 failure. According to Muratore, SpaceX was not allowed to begin reconstruction work at the launch pad until January 2017. The delay stemmed from the ongoing investigation, which included a grid-by-grid examination of debris, cataloging recovered materials, and launch site remediation. Muratore and other SpaceX engineers spent these four months redesigning the launch pad. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft, seen here with the new launch tower and access arm at SLC-40. Credit:…

Key Points Canadian travel to the U.S. rebounded in April and May, with a 9.5% increase in May, mainly driven by automobile trips. Despite recent gains, total Canadian return trips to the U.S. remain 28.7% below May 2024 levels, with air travel declining and leisure bookings growing modestly. Younger Canadians, especially Gen Z, show a much higher intent to travel to the U.S. compared to older generations, prompting new marketing campaigns targeting this segment. Summary Canadian travel to the U.S. rebounded in April and May, with a notable 9.5% year-over-year increase in May 2026, largely due to a spike in…

At NASA, remaining a global leader in exploration and innovation includes having a skilledand dedicated workforce. Technicians play a critical role in advancing the agency’sresearch and missions, applying hands-on expertise across engineering, fabrication,electronics, and countless other technical fields. To help cultivate the next generation of technical talent, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagementhosted Career Technical Education Day recently at NASA’s Langley Research Center inHampton, Virginia. One hundred high school and community college students from Virginiaand North Carolina attended, eager to explore the technical career paths that help driveNASA’s work. “Many students picture NASA as only astronauts or engineers and therefore never…

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands in the launch position at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the planned liftoff of the Starlink 6-61 mission on Oct. 22, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now SpaceX will mark its historic launch on the stock market Friday morning with a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This will be the 650th flight of SpaceX’s workhorse launcher to date and the 68th Falcon 9 launch so far in 2026. SpaceX will fly the Starlink 10-54 mission, which will send 29 Starlink…

The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. Today, the U.S. Marine Corps celebrated the end of more than half a century of Harrier ‘jump jet’ operations with a sundown ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. For more than 20 percent of the history of the republic, the British-originated jump jet helped to defend America. The story of how the U.S. military first got involved in the program is a little-known but fascinating one. Michael Pryce, who has worked on various aircraft projects, from the Harrier…