NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has passed flight readiness review, paving the way for the aircraft to transition to the airworthiness and flight safety review phase.

Independent experts from NASA completed a study of the X-59 project team’s approach to public safety during ground and flight testing and examined the team’s analysis of possible risks and hazards, the agency said Wednesday.

“The Flight Readiness Review focused on specific aspects of the X-59 team’s work on the aircraft, but also served as an overview and update on the entire project,” said Jay Brandon, chief engineer for the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project.

X-59 is being built by Lockheed Martin‘s Skunk Works subsidiary for NASA’s Quesst experimental mission, which aims to demonstrate technology that can travel faster than the speed of sound while reducing the loudness of a sonic boom to a quiet thump.

For the next phase, the Airworthiness and Flight Safety Review Board will review findings from the flight readiness review and send a recommendation to the director of Armstrong Flight Research Center for airworthiness approval.

The Federal Communications Commission has established a steering team to help FCC implement the National Spectrum Strategy and develop and enforce spectrum policies.

FCC said Tuesday Susan Mort, deputy chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, will co-lead the newly created Spectrum Steering Team.

Krista Witanowski, legal adviser within the commission’s OET, will serve as chief of staff of the new steering team.

The Spectrum Steering Team will work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other federal agencies and solicit insights from stakeholders on how the commission could help advance the implementation of the National Spectrum Strategy, including participation in the study of 2,786 megahertz of spectrum for repurposing across bands.

“Demand for spectrum is growing at a breakneck pace as wireless technology expands and transforms so much in our economy and modern life, so we need to get creative with spectrum policies,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

“The National Spectrum Strategy is a good start, and the Spectrum Steering Team will put its experience, talent and leadership to work helping to shape a bright wireless future,” added Rosenworcel.

Margaret Boatner, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategy and acquisition reform, said the military branch will continue running its software offerings under research, development, test and evaluation funding instead of transitioning them to sustainment as part of its software modernization efforts, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“We really have to retrain ourselves to think about and to acknowledge the fact that software really needs to stay in development all the time,” Boatner told FNN in an interview.

The move is part of a new software policy signed by Army Secretary and 2024 Wash100 awardee Christine Wormuth in March.

“It’s recognizing that a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) model software is never done. That way, our program managers can plan to use the appropriate color of money, which in many cases might be RDT&E, which is the color money you need to do true development,” Boatner said.

“So, that will give our program managers a lot more flexibility to determine the appropriate color money based on what they want to do, such that our software systems can really continue to be developed over time,” she added.

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