The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has aligned all the elements of its digital modernization strategy and Bill Marion, the service’s former deputy chief information officer, said the roadmap will help his successor speed up the pace of modernization, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“Continuing along that roadmap line, all of the enterprise IT-as-a-service and related IT and digital modernization efforts are very front and center. We have to keep accelerating them and keep driving them,” Marion told the network’s Ask the CIO program. “I think we will accelerate 5G even more, and I think COVID-19 will drive unified collaboration even more. And the journey we are with the chief data officer where data is a strategic asset is another key one.”

Marion, who stepped down from his role on April 30, also discussed the Digital U program as part of the service’s digital workforce training initiative and offered updates on the service’s network modernization effort, including the Platform One and Cloud One initiatives.

“We are continuing to move forward with our bring-your-own-device program and accelerating that option,” he said. “Network-as-a-service has had some challenges, but we are seeing some good progress specifically on the Microsoft side in the work they are doing and looking at how they are starting to transform our network.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a $7.5 million award for the design and development of a sensor that would quantify solar ions or energy particles, Space News reported Friday.

The University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory will produce and test the Supra Thermal Ion Sensor that would measure solar ions and notify operators if these particles generate a shockwave targeting Earth. Davin Larson, the project’s principal investigator, said these shockwaves may disrupt communications links.

The sensor would support NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange-1 mission that aims to provide continued observation-based space weather forecasting in alignment with the existing Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite. The agency’s Office of Projects, Planning and Analysis manages SWFO L-1.

The U.S. Air Force has commenced a program to foster industrial collaboration for further promotion of the vertical flight aircraft market. USAF said Friday that it virtually launched the Agility Prime program to promote the emerging market that the military is interested in adopting.

The vertical flight aircraft market poses the potential of flying cars to the commercial sector, and USAF seeks to apply its expertise to testing and further development of the technology. The service branch believes it can help the industry potentially reduce aircraft testing hazards.

Agility Prime’s kick-off included activities that aimed to promote USAF’s interest in expanding the market via partnerships with other federal entities, companies and investors.

“Despite COVID-19, we’re still very optimistic about the future, specifically around flying cars and how they might help the military and the world produce better logistics, better medical support and better disaster relief,” said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient.

USAF wants to begin purchases of this new vertical flight technology by 2023. Roper announced Agility Prime’s kick-off in the middle of last month.

Douglas Loverro, associate administrator of NASA’s human exploration and operations mission directorate, said the agency is confident that the Space Launch System’s first flight will push through in November 2021, Spaceflight Now reported Friday.

NASA is currently preparing the launch system’s Boeing-built core stage for test-firing activities at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

According to Loverro, NASA plans to resume work on the facility’s B-2 test stand in a few weeks to support “green run” testing after the agency terminated operations in March due to COVID-19 concerns.

“It won’t be at full speed, but it will be done in a safe manner so we can protect our Boeing and NASA workers down there,” said Loverro. “And we will work on the engine section, we’ll work on the thermal protection system. Each element will be started when we have the plans and the gear ready to protect those workers.”

The SLS inaugural flight is designated as Artemis I and will send an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit. The second Artemis mission is scheduled for late 2022 or early 2023, while Artemis 3 is aimed at sending humans to the moon by 2024.