Tag Archives: Transportation Department

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has earmarked $5.8 million to fund the unmanned aircraft system research and training efforts of universities under the agency’s Air Transportation Center of Excellence for UAS program. FAA said Wednesday that the grants will support its Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) initiative. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved 41 commercial space launches and reentries in 2020, breaking a new record in the area. “This record-setting year in launches, and the new streamlined launch and reentry licensing regulations, bode well for continued rapid growth of America’s commercial space sector,” said Elaine Chao, secretary of Transportation.

Joe Biden, the U.S. president-elect, intends to nominate former South Bend City Mayor Pete Buttigieg for the Department of Transportation's (DOT) highest leadership role, Biden's transition campaign said Tuesday. Buttigieg, Biden's nominee to become the U.S. secretary of transportation, would succeed Elaine Chao if elected for the role with the service branch. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expects the number of commercial space launches to continuously grow in 2021. FAA said Monday it predicts the number of commercial launches in 2021 alone may grow to over 50 from this year's current record of 35.

The Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence has issued a report outlining four recommendations for how the federal government can help improve the use of cloud computing resources in support of federally funded research-and-development work on AI. Those recommendations are launching and supporting pilot projects to explore the challenges and advantages related to the use of commercial cloud platforms in conducting AI research. 

Federal officials discussed how their agencies could help support internet of things (IoT) through public-private partnerships. Daniel Morgan said agencies working to establish relationships with industry associations could enable such partnerships to support IoT. Emery Csulak said most discussions on 5G are about supply chain risk management, incident response and workforce. 

Chief data officers said they were able to establish connections with federal employees with skills in data science driven by recent visibility into their mission. Daniel Morgan said the agency helps empower a group of employees to gain access to data and make connections with other individuals through his office. 

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday announced the publication of a final rule from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that updates the licensing requirements for commercial space launches and reentry missions. The new rule combines four regulatory parts to implement a single set of safety and licensing regulations for commercial spaceflight launch and reentry operations. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded grants worth $7.5 million combined to support eight unmanned aircraft research, training and education efforts under the agency’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) institutions.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) asked 10 federal agencies in June about their efforts to modernize their legacy information technology systems and seven of those agencies responded. The Department of Defense (DoD), Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) said they developed updated IT platforms.