Blog

The UK government’s industrial strategy is paying off for Rolls-Royce which is set to receive more than £10m for two projects that will focus on aircraft engine performance and efficiency. The total value of the projects is over £21m. Rolls-Royce has clubbed together with the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and academic partners to secure the grants for the two projects...

As space technology gets more and more critical to the UK’s military systems, a new strategy is needed to secure the UK’s operations against space-based threats. This strategy will be unveiled this Summer which will include plans to protect against emerging space-based threats such as jamming of civilian satellites used for broadcasters and satellite navigation to support mi...

Peter Hargreaves, founder of financial services company Hargreaves Lansdowne, has taken a controlling interest in Goonhilly Earth Station for £24m. The company will use the investment for working capital to expand the business internationally and provide 24 hour coverage of the Moon and Mars. Goonhilly, once the world’s largest satellite station, has a long and storied histo...

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) is to send a small autonomous helicopter to Mars as part of the agency's 2020 Mars Rover mission. It is hoped that the rotorcraft will demonstrate the advantages and feasibility of a heavier-than-air craft on Mars. If the concept is proven, helicopters could have a role in future manned Mars missions as scouts, able to reach and survey nearby ...

At its second Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, Uber shed some light on plans to overcome key barriers to its vision of on-demand air mobility. Keen to own all aspects of a future based on on-demand urban mobility, Uber has set its sights on air transport as a complement to its automobile network and recently acquired last-mile electric scooter businesses. Basically, if you wan...

Atlas Elektronik UK has delivered the Royal Navy’s first autonomous minesweeper. The vessel is made up of three coil auxiliary boats led by a ten tonne unmanned surface vessel. The auxiliary boats can detonate mines via magnetic, electric and acoustic signals. These capabilities extend to defeating modern digital sea mines which can detect and target military ships passing a...

Planetary Resources, the space mining company, ultimately aims to build a business by mining asteroids. A very early milestone was reached in January 2018 as the company launched a tiny satellite as a demonstration platform with the goal of detecting water in space. The shoe-box sized satellite, known as the Arkyd-6, was sent to space on an Indian rocket and immediately bega...

Stratolaunch’s maiden flight is to take place in Summer 2018 as it looks to take the next step towards commercial rocket launch services. Stratolaunch is most famous for the aircraft’s mammoth size. Seriously, the plane is huge. It has a wingspan of 385 feet, weighs 580 tonnes with a rocket and requires six Pratt and Whitney PW4056 747 jet engines to take flight. With this s...

Reaction Engines will take the next step in the development of its SABRE hybrid engine after raising £26.5m in funding from Boeing HorizonX Ventures and Rolls Royce. The investors were obviously impressed with the company’s technology, the mainstay of which is an engine for both space use and aerospace use, able to reach Mach 5 in air-breathing mode and Mach 25 for space fli...

3D printing is a hot topic in manufacturing circles at the moment. But one company is pushing this to the limit by 3D printing rocket engines. Relativity, an American space startup, has raised a further $35m to continue to develop its Aeon 1 engine, its Terran 1 rocket and the additive manufacturing technologies that that will build it. The goal is for the vast majority of i...