President Barack Obama will travel to the Asia-Pacific in late April in an effort to increase diplomatic, economic, and security engagements in the region, announced White House press secretary Jay Carney on Feb. 12. Specifically, Obama will visit Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Topics slated for discussion include modernizing the 54-year-old alliance between the US and Japan as well as the defense alliance with the Philippines; recent developments in North Korea; and “combined efforts to promote denuclearization,” said Carney.
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to fly military payloads for the Space Force.
