Cat Hofacker

Washington, D.C., United States

Acting Editor-in-Chief at Aerospace America

Associate editor @AeroAmMag | Previously @USATODAY @chqdaily @thenewpolitical | Send story ideas and tips to [email protected]

Articles

Could an ‘organically led Manhattan Project’ spark a new era in quantum sensing?”

3 weeks ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

U.S. officials aim to harness commercial partnerships as quantum technologies gain momentum There’s a common refrain that often echoes across the frontiers of quantum sensing: You can’t hide from gravity. Anything with mass, however small, exerts a corresponding gravitational force.
Rush hour at the moon?

1 month ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

An app for that might not be crazyTonight’s planned launch of an Intuitive Machines lunar lander will, if all goes as intended, bring to three the number of commercial landers that will attempt to land on moon in the coming days and weeks. That sounds like a small number, but it’s a veritable rush hour considering that since 1966, 17 spacecraft from four countries have succeeded at soft landings on the lunar surface.
Emergency response aircraft competition selects first round of award winners

2 months ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Paul Brinkmann |Cat Hofacker

The GoAERO Prize competition focused on aerial emergency response on Tuesday gave its first round of financial awards, totaling $500,000, to 25 teams around the U.S and five other nations that are developing small aircraft prototypes to deliver emergency cargo or rescue people in disaster zones. The winning designs include concepts for cargo aircraft and others that would carry injured or sick people. The contest encourages a large degree of autonomous control up to no human operator aboard.
Two launches. Two companies. Two billionaires.

2 months ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

The debut of Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket design vividly illustrated the contrast between Blue Origin’s “step by step, ferociously” approach and the “break it till you make it” philosophy that Elon Musk and SpaceX have embraced for the Starship-Super Heavy vehicles. Cat Hofacker analyzes the competing approaches, their origins and what’s at stake.
Human factors loom large in aftermath of deadly D.C. air collision

2 months ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta |Cat Hofacker

Why did the helicopter crew seem not to see the jet? The search for the cause of the deadly air collision over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., has gravitated to questions of why and how a U.S. Army helicopter pilot flew into the path of a single-aisle American Eagle jet as it was coming in to land. The collision just before 9 p.m. on a cold, glistening Wednesday evening in the U.S. capital region killed all 64 crew and passengers on the jet and the three crew members on the helicopter.
Bringing home a piece of space history

Jan 10, 2025 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

Authors of a technical paper describe how Vanguard 1, the second U.S. satellite, could be retrieved, analyzed and displayed at one of the Smithsonian museumsAIAA SCITECH FORUM, ORLANDO Fla. — The Vanguard 1 spacecraft narrowly missed out on the distinction of being the first U.S. satellite, an honor that of course goes to Explorer 1, which was launched two months earlier in January 1958. It is, however, the first satellite to convert sunlight to electricity.
In U.S., generals, spies and moguls cross their fingers for Bezos’ New Glenn

Jan 8, 2025 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

Inaugural launch of heavy-lift rocket could establish Blue Origin as a welcome competitor to SpaceX, ULA for national security launches Latin is a dead language, but Blue Origin has made two Latin words famous in the space industry: “gradatim ferociter,” or “step by step, ferociously.” The company’s most ferocious step yet in the rocket marketplace will be attempted Friday morning during a launch window that opens at 1 a.m. Eastern, technology and weather permitting at the launch site and the...
NASA describes ideas for bringing samples of Mars home more affordably

Jan 7, 2025 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

Press briefing puts choices on the public record before Trump team’s arrivalAIAA SCITECH FORUM, ORLANDO, Fla. — With a new presidential administration poised to take charge of NASA, the agency today outlined options for reducing the cost of one of its flagship endeavors, the Mars Sample Return mission. The estimated cost of MSR had swelled to $11 billion, and the schedule for returning 30 pinky-sized tubes of Martian rocks and soil had slipped by a decade.
Can Kwaj survive?

Dec 31, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Mike Gruss |Cat Hofacker

The highest point on the Kwajalein island chain, home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, is Mount Olympus. Rising 17.5 meters above the Pacific Ocean, it illustrates a big problem facing the U.S. military: Arguably its most vital missile, hypersonics and space surveillance venue is uniquely vulnerable to the rising seas of climate change. Is it feasible to keep Kwaj running?
Extravehicular activities, then and now

Sep 30, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Cat Hofacker

When billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis took turns poking their upper bodies out of their Crew Dragon capsule, the feat was less daring than the first spacewalks six decades ago. In March 1965, in the midst of the Cold War space race, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov climbed through the airlock of his Voskhod-2 capsule and floated in free fall, tethered to his spacecraft by only a skinny umbilical.