First of NASA's GRAIL Spacecraft Starts Orbit

NASA has confirmed that the first of two NASA spacecraft to study the moon in unprecedented detail has entered lunar orbit. NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft successfully completed its planned main engine burn at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST) today. As of 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST), GRAIL-A is in an orbit of 56 miles by 5,197 miles around the moon that takes approximately 11.5 hours to complete.

Aircraft Impacted Residential Area, Pilot Survived With Serious Injuries

OK... it did not take long to read into this prelim before I got a severe case of the willies. I don't care what you're flying... ice is nothing to mess with and even a high-performance turbine twin with FIKI capabilities means having to be very CAREFUL when it comes to icing conditions... even more so during the VERY vulnerable issues that take place during an IFR approach. The pilot is lucky to be alive... but another 'airplane crashes into house' story is the last thing this business needs.

Union Input Facilitated in 'New Relationship' With Company

New details are emerging in the new relationship between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The Seattle Times reports that under the terms of the new contract, representatives from Boeing and IAM have agreed to participate in a council which will hold monthly meetings.

LaGuardia To See Net Increase in Jobs During 2012

The recently announced trade of takeoff and landing slots at New York LaGuardia and Washington Reagan National Airports by US Airways and Delta has reduced the number of US Airways flights operating at LaGuardia. As might be expected, the airline says it will trim employment there to match.

Threats To GPS, Resignation Of FAA Administrator Among Top Stories

 It has been a topsy-turvey year for GA, with a few signs of economic recovery but ongoing questions about sustainable growth. It all occurred against a backdrop of ongoing bickering in Congress over long-term funding for the FAA, and the resignation of the agency's administrator following a DUI arrest. Meanwhile, a company called LightSquared is fighting to deploy a system which could affect nearly every GPS receiver in use today.

F-35, A New Tanker, And UAVs Top The Year For The Armed Forces

The year in military aviation was highlighted by significant milestones for the 5th generation Joint Strike Fighter and the announcement that a U.S.-based company would build the replacement for the aging KC-135 tanker. But there were also significant experiments in hypersonic aircraft, and a stealthy military spacecraft is, as far as we know, still in orbit. Here are the top stories in military aviation for 2011.

SAIB: CE-12-09

The FAA has issued an SAIB affecting the Diamond DA20 series of fixed wing aircraft. The issue surrounds the Nose Gear, specifically the DA20 Nose Landing Fork Assembly. According to the FAA SAIB, "This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin is issued to inform owners and maintainers of Diamond DA20 series aircraft of a potential unsafe condition regarding the cracking of the nose landing gear (NLG) fork assembly. At this time, this airworthiness concern has not been determined to be an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) action under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 39."

Division Of L-3 Accused Of False Placement Promises 

Thirteen plaintiffs have filed suit against the Link Simulation & Training Air Traffic Control Academy, based in Dennison, TX, claiming they were charged $41,000 each for training which promised the first 100 graduates would be hired by the FAA as controllers. At one time, given the publicity surrounding the controller shortage, that may have been a plausible claim.

Aero Linx: Complete YouTube 'Airborne' Program Roster For well over a decade, one of the most tumultuous in aviation history, and encompassing some 150,000 stories, 5000 Aero-Casts as well as over 1100 Aero-TV video features, the Aero-News Network has been the premier source for ground-breaking, honest, real-time aviation news. And when each exciting new generation of aviation news products and programs were released, over the last decade or so, it was Aero-News that brought them to fruition. In 2011, Aero-News expanded its efforts, once again, to bring you aviation news in a new and exciting way, with an evolving concept we call 'Airborne.' Airborne programing is currently being brought to you as a synoptic wee

Regolith The layer of loose rock resting on bedrock (sometimes called mantle rock), found on the Earth, the Moon, or a planet. Regolith is made up of soils, sediments, weathered rock, and hard, near-surface crusts. On the surface of the Moon, regolith is a fine rocky layer of fragmentary debris (or dust) produced mainly by meteoroid collisions.

"My resolution for the new year is to unlock lunar mysteries and understand how the moon, Earth and other rocky planets evolved. Now, with GRAIL-A successfully placed in orbit around the moon, we are one step closer to achieving that goal." Source: Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, discussing her thoughts as NASA's GRAIL-A reached lunar orbit.