INDUSTRY NEWS

Electrical problems delay SpaceX’s resupply mission to ISS — A scheduled SpaceX resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed due to a failed power distributor outside the station. NASA noted that one of the station’s main bus switching units (MBSU) was affected. This unit distributes power to two of the eight power channels on the ISS. According to the space agency, a series of maneuvers will be performed by flight controllers to robotically swap the failed MBSU for a spare unit. Following the swap, checkouts will be carried out on the newly installed MBSU. After this, preparation will be underway to get the station to full power capability to support capture and berthing of the SpaceX payload. Private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company SpaceX is one of NASA’s key partners in sending supplies and cargo to the ISS. The upcoming mission would be SpaceX’s 17th for NASA ...

Airbus may sue German government over export blockage — The dispute over arms exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia goes into the next round, as Airbus wants to take the German federal government to court for blocking export licenses. By withholding export licenses, Berlin is preventing Airbus from delivering helicopters and a border security system to Saudi Arabia, and given that no other solution seems to work, Airbus may see legal action as the only way to resolve the problem. Since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the fall of 2018, the German government has refused to allow any weapon deliveries to Saudi Arabia. At the time, Chancellor Angela Merkel spontaneously announced a stop all supplies of German weapons. Under pressure from France and the UK, Germany is now allowing German parts to be delivered for joint European armaments projects such as Eurofighter, but finished products may not be delivered to Saudi Arabia. This means that the two Airbus contracts with Saudi Arabia cannot be fulfilled, and the company is beginning to feel the financial consequences. For the company, the export restrictions are already biting financially, and in its first quarter financial statement, issued April 30, Airbus said it had taken a charge of 190 million euros “as a consequence of the prolonged suspension of defense export licences to Saudi Arabia by the German government.”