The space shuttle Endeavour will carry two Air Force Research Lab experiments to the International Space Station during its final mission that is scheduled to start Friday with liftoff from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The Endeavour’s crew will transfer these payloads—the Massive Heat Transfer Experiment and VADER—to the space station with the shuttle’s robotic arm. Both experiments will collect data to help engineers develop the next generation of thermal control technology for spacecraft. “Of all the space missions I have participated in, this one is special since it involves the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour,” said Andy Williams, thermal systems lead in AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Endeavor will also bring the Air Force Academy’s Canary experiment and the Naval Research Laboratory’s Digital Imaging Star Camera to ISS. Canary will explore space environmental phenomena. (Kirtland release)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.