NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle heat shield candidate materials have just been tested under intense heat conditions, to see how they would hold up during Orion’s return and re-entry from a lunar mission. Philip Lorenz III reports that NASA engineers who specialize in arc heater testing teamed with the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee to modify the center’s High Enthalpy Aerothermal H2 test facility to accommodate the testing.
The Air Force is planning to spend $2.19 billion over the next five years to acquire new C-37 jets for transporting military and civilian leaders. That’s on top of another $1.17 billion in projected funding for the VC-25B “Air Force One” replacement.