SOURCE: US AIR FORCE

The Department of the Air Force announced today the contract award for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform, marking a major milestone in the advancement of air superiority. The contract, awarded to Boeing, will lead to the development of the F-47, the world’s first sixth-generation fighter aircraft.

“I’m thrilled to announce that, at my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet,” said President Donald J. Trump during a press briefing at the White House. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47.”

SOURCE: IANS

SpaceX’s Starship and heavy booster — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket system — will launch for Mars by 2026, and human landings on the Red Planet will likely begin in 2031, said billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday.

In a post shared on social media platform X, SpaceX CEO Musk said Starship will carry Tesla humanoid robot Optimus to Mars. If conditions look suitable for humans, it could start “as soon as 2029.”

SOURCE: AP

A launchpad problem prompted SpaceX to delay a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday to replace NASA’s two stuck astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams.

The new crew needs to get to the ISS before the two can head home after nine months in orbit. Concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours before the Falcon rocket’s planned evening liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre. As the countdown clocks ticked down, engineers evaluated the hydraulics used to release one of the two arms clamping the rocket to its support structure. This structure needs to tilt back right before liftoff.

SOURCE: ANI

Amid the ongoing tariff war between the two countries, US President Donald Trump, during his conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, raised the point that he did not believe in the border demarcation treaty between them and wants to revise the boundary, the New York Times reported.

The report, which cited four people with firsthand knowledge of their content, on the condition of anonymity, also noted that Trump, in an early February call, challenged the border treaty between the two countries and told Trudeau he didn’t like their shared water agreements.

SOURCE: NASA

Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology payloads to the Moon, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down on the lunar surface at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday.

Throughout Blue Ghost’s mission, the agency’s scientific instruments aim to test and demonstrate lunar subsurface drilling technology, regolith sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation methods. The data captured could also benefit humans on Earth by providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact Earth.

SOURCE: Boom Supersonic 

Boom Supersonic, the company building the world’s fastest airliner, Overture, today announced the successful first supersonic flight of its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. Boom designed, built, and flew the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet—the first civil supersonic jet made in America.

Flown by Boom Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, XB-1 entered the supersonic corridor and reached an altitude of 35,290 feet before accelerating to Mach 1.122 (652 KTAS or 750 mph) – breaking the sound barrier for the first time. Historically, supersonic aircraft have been the work of nation states, developed by militaries and governments. XB-1’s supersonic flight marks the first time an independently developed jet has broken the sound barrier.