John Lowery

A new lab building at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., will house some of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s “irreplaceable” equipment for testing how electronic spacecraft parts will likely stand up against radiation in space. Also this year at Kirtland, AFRL opened the Skywave Technology ...

The Department of the Air Force’s chief information officer offered glimpses into a future with “intelligent warfare” during a webinar Nov. 30 by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Beyond simply “informationized warfare,” with its universal digital connectivity and plentiful computing power, “intelligent warfare” goes ...

U.S. Space Command is “making good progress” toward goals to network the Defense Department’s space-based missile defense and other sensors and to transform single-purpose satellites to do more than one job, said Army Gen. James H. Dickinson. The command’s leader since August 2020, he also ...

The Space Force and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command formalized a new chain of command for Guardians in the Pacific, activating a new service component command of the unified combatant command. Establishing U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific gives the Space Force a seat “at the table” to plan ...

A snag in Space Launch Delta 45’s testing of the Artemis 1 flight termination system contributed to a delay of the very-early-morning launch Nov. 16, one of two last-minute glitches in the final preparations to launch America’s new moon rocket for the first time. 

A cubesat sent to blaze a trail for NASA’s next space station arrived in lunar orbit Nov. 13—the first cubesat known to ever have done so—after a voyage that proved tense at times. Meanwhile the small company that created the tiny spacecraft secured a new ...

Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are sending military members to join in the U.S. Space Force's newly expanded Space Flag exercise next month. Space Training and Readiness Command confirmed the roster of international coalition partners joining Space Flag 23-1 in December.

A World War II-era bomber and fighter collided during an air show performance in Dallas on Nov. 12, killing six members of the Commemorative Air Force who were flying as pilots and crew. On Nov. 14, the CAF released the names of the volunteers flying ...

The U.S. and Russia need to work together on a plan to de-orbit the International Space Station, a plan that a NASA advisory board said is needed both in case of an emergency—a growing likelihood—and to prepare for the station’s retirement.

International personnel will join the Space Force in December for its flagship training series Space Flag, just one new aspect of Space Training and Readiness Command’s slate of planned space-oriented exercises.

Space Force Brig. Gen. Dennis Bythewood took over U.S. Space Command’s Joint Task Force-Space Defense on Nov. 4, becoming only the second commander of the task force’s “Space Troopers” at Schriever Space Force Base, Colo. 

The emergence of autonomous weapons could intensify military competition, according to a new report by the Stimson Center. It follows a meeting of the United Nations First Committee in which the U.S. became one of 70 countries to favor limiting the weapons. The report authors advocate ...

The Air Force is shifting its approach from one focused on proofs of concepts and experiments to one based on developing an operational architecture and model.

A new report suggests that the U.S. military’s “technological edge” could erode—the Defense Department no longer able to fulfill its commitments or to project power in the customary way—if the U.S. doesn’t become a better-informed player in the global “techno-economic competition.” To that end, a ...

The commercial space industry has proven its potential military value since Russia invaded Ukraine—and not just in the fighting. But the Defense Department won’t be able to subscribe to every commercial imagery or communication service and may instead benefit from “some kind of a call-up ...