A second uncrewed test flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft is now scheduled for no earlier than the end of March, SpaceNews reported on Friday. NASA and Boeing announced Dec. 9 that the launch of the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission is scheduled for March 29 on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral. 

“The pacing item really is getting the software ready to go,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said. “As they continue to make progress on the flight software and the testing of that software, we’ll be able to refine that date a little bit better.”

Boeing had completed more than 90 percent of the recommended actions from an independent review earlier this year of the original OFT mission, NASA stated. “NASA and Boeing are doing a tremendous amount of work on all aspects of their flight software,” Stich said in the statement.

“With each vehicle closeout, line of code tested and document delivered, we’re on a path to proving we have a robust, fully operational vehicle,” said John Vollmer, Starliner vice president and program manager at Boeing.

While engineers complete updates to the spacecraft’s software, the spacecraft itself is nearing final assembly, Boeing said, with all the major components if the crew capsule installed and final checkouts of systems underway. It will then be mated to the spacecraft’s service module, which is already complete.

The CFT mission will fly NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Barry Wilmore to the ISS. NASA and Boeing announced in Oct. 2020 that Wilmore would replace Boeing’s Chris Ferguson. 

Wilmore will begin training with his crewmates immediately in preparation for the 2021 flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Boeing will focus on delivering safe, reliable and cost-effective solutions for crew transportation services to and from the ISS. 

“My personal thank you to Chris for his leadership; he is putting his family first, which Boeing fully supports,” said Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, in regards to the appointment. “We are fortunate he will continue to take an active role on the Starliner program and bring his depth and breadth of experience in human spaceflight to the program.”

The Partnership for Public Service and Microsoft have released a report on how three government agencies adopted technology platforms to expand existing services and establish a new function during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a chatbot to address the increasing number of inquiries, enabling call center personnel to focus on calls regarding urgent medical concerns and personal requests.

“Response from veterans has been positive. Within the first few months, the chatbot saw more than 53,000 unique user sessions. During peak usage, the chatbot responded to twice as many coronavirus-related queries as did the VA tier 1 contact center over the same period of time,” the report reads.

The South Bend Common Council in Indiana responded to the health crisis by transitioning to virtual meetings to facilitate discussion on issues, while the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering launched the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center, an initiative that facilitates analysis of medical images to detect and treat COVID-19 using artificial intelligence.

The report also mentioned several lessons learned from agencies that turned to technology during the health crisis, such as establishing a technology foundation, assessing how technology can enable mission delivery, monitoring cybersecurity concerns and putting users first when designing tech platforms.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has offered five recommendations to help the Department of Defense (DoD) implement its latest strategy for addressing challenges related to the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) and ensure superiority in EMS.

GAO said Thursday the DoD secretary should direct the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to determine processes needed to provide for integrated defensewide strategy, budgeting and planning related to EMS operations and propose operational, management, governance and organizational reforms related to EMS.

The Pentagon chief should designate clear responsibility to a senior official to initiate action for the long-term implementation of the 2020 EMS strategy, release an actionable implementation plan within 180 days after issuance of the latest strategy and establish oversight processes to facilitate the implementation of the EMS strategy.

DoD released its latest EMS strategy in September 2020, according to the congressional watchdog.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to uphold its designation of Huawei Technologies as a national security threat after it voted to deny the company’s request for a review of FCC’s order in June 2020.

The denial of Huawei’s application for review of the order by the commission's public safety and homeland security bureau suggests that organizations may no longer use FCC’s Universal Service Fund to buy, maintain, modify or support any services or equipment from the company, the commission said Thursday.

“In denying that application, the Commission today recognized the overwhelming evidence of Huawei’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military and intelligence apparatus, and affirmed the Bureau’s determination that Huawei poses a threat to the security and integrity of the nation’s communications networks or the communications supply chain,” the FCC notice reads.

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate and U.S. Border Patrol have invested in a commercial satellite communications technology that provides portable situational awareness. 

“The focus of S&T's investment is threefold. First is to add security controls into the already-available commercial product so that it can be approved for transmitting and receiving official DHS data,” said S&T program manager Shawn McDonald.

DHS said Wednesday it demonstrated the Somewear-made Global Hotspot in June to evaluate the device's operational performance. Global Hotspot facilitates chat and location data transmissions via satcom links. 

The technology's operational testing took place in Montana and demonstrated ease of use. A border security agent who participated in the test said he was able to use the device despite being the least technical person in his team.

S&T selected Somewear to develop the device under the Long-Range Broad Area Announcement solicitation. The company underwent a preliminary analysis alongside other satcom technology makers.

“In less than six months this product is showing tremendous potential to fill a communications gap across many of our DHS components, and at a price-point that allows for wide deployment,” added McDonald.

Col. William Young, incoming commander of the U.S. Air Force's 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, has said the new component will focus on expanding the use of software-defined technologies for electronic warfare applications, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday. The electromagnetic spectrum warfare wing is slated to go live in March under the Air Force Warfare Center’s oversight.

Young told attendees at a recent  Air Force Association virtual event that he envisions the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing to rapidly deploy capabilities without disrupting battle plans or altering hardware or underlying forces.

He cited new approaches to electronic warfare such as exploiting open architectures and software features as well as satellite-driven, edge-level capabilities to piece disparate technologies together.

“The power of that competitive advantage is not merely in the technology,” Young said. Rather, the forces at the edge innovate by looking at the capabilities available to them and string them all together, he explained.

The Air Force first announced plans to establish the wing in November.