NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University Professor Mason Peck to be the agency’s chief technologist, effective in January. Peck will be both the agency’s principal adviser and main advocate on matters of technology policy and programs. Peck will also help coordinate the agency’s technology investments. As an engineer …

Those futuristic flying cars movie-goers frequently see in science-fiction thrillers will be coming to real life in 2012, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. According to Aviation Week, program manager Stephen Waller said both AAI Corp. and Lockheed Martin have produced “feasible designs” for DARPA’s Transformer program and …

The Defense Department plans to expand the sharing of classified cyber threat intelligence between the Pentagon and certain contracting firms to better secure commercial networks used for military purposes, Pentagon officials said. A test program, which ran from May 9 through Sept. 15, prevented hundreds of attempted breaches at 20 participating industrial defense firms, officials …

The debt ceiling increase President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday is certain to cut $350 billion from the defense budget. However, according to Government Executive, federal contractors are left with uncertainty over how to plan for the long term. The cuts come at a time when the defense contracting …

Norm Augustine The National Science Foundation announced last week Norm Augustine has been appointed to lead the upcoming strategic review of U.S. science-support operations on the continent of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Augustine is the former chair of the National Academy of Engineering and previously served as chairman and …

The federal government has awarded more than $8 billion worth of small-business contracts to multimillion-dollar moneymakers such as Lockheed Martin, General Electric and AT&T, among many others, according to the American Small Business League’s analysis of federal contracts awarded last year. The analysis revealed that of the 100 business awarded …

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III helped launch last week a new $500 million-dollar government initiative aimed at bolstering “advanced manufacturing,” by bringing together private industry, academia and the government to invest in new and emerging technologies. The new program will help create a new class of high-tech manufacturing …

As top defense-industry officials gather for the biennial exposition of top military and aerospace weaponry and technology that is the Paris Air Show, they may come home with a more optimistic message than the doom and gloom of budget cutting and deficits. According to a report in The Wall Street …

Defense Department acquisition chief Ashton Carter has met with some of the largest defense contractors — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing — to discuss plans for a new generation of nuclear long-range bombers. According to The Los Angeles Times, the new aircraft would be the first long-range U.S.-built bomber …

High-minded Defense Department “should-cost” acquisition estimates are running square into the brave new world of satellites, in what National Defense magazine called an “outer space imponderable.” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Ashton Carter has indicated DoD shells out too much for space systems and even further back …