A pilot with the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing experienced an in-flight emergency Friday morning about 13 minutes into a training flight and needed to jettison his external fuel tanks, burning off most of the fuel first, reports the Burlington Free Press. The pilot dropped the tanks over a planned location in Lake Champlain and landed safely at the wing’s home at Burlington Airport. A subsequent Free Press report said the Coast Guard had found one of the tanks near Willsboro Point, N.Y., and that an environmental team from Albany, N.Y., would retrieve it. The Coast Guard was still searching for the second tank.
Space Force Wants More Rapid, Flexible Launch
May 6, 2025
The Space Force launch enterprise is slashing the time it takes to get a payload into space. What began as a series of proof-of-concept experiments, beginning with Victus Nox—Latin for “conquer the night”—and a follow-on coming soon called Victus Haze, is evolving into a new way of doing business.