The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 1st Lt. Joseph Helton, 24, of Monroe Ga., died Sept. 8 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 6th Security Forces Squadron at MacDill AFB, Fla. The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday the death of an airman from MacDill, but the Pentagon had withheld his name pending notification of family.
The Space Force expects to award $905 million in contracts over the next five years through a new Maneuverable GEO program, which aims to form a commercial fleet of mobile communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit.