AFMC Command News

  • AFRL, NASA partner with 8 universities for new Mission Concept Program

    The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, and NASA announced  their collaboration with eight universities for a new Mission Concept Program, or MCP, from Jan. 5 to Feb. 3, 2024. The program, sponsored by AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate, is held under the University Nanosatellite Program, or UNP,

  • AFRL partners with NASA in CubeSat navigation, communication mission

    The Air Force Research Laboratory’s, or AFRL, newest sensor experiment deployed from the International Space Station Dec. 29, 2022, hosted on NASA’s six-unit cube satellite named petitSat, or Plasma Enhancements in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite. The CubeSat’s mission is to study a layer in

  • AFRL infrastructure projects boost readiness, security

    While the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is notable for developments inside the lab, a series of projects at AFRL sites across the U.S. is modernizing infrastructure and strengthening science and technology capabilities for national defense. These projects include new rocket fabrication

  • Space entities examine future technology

    Seventy professionals from the space ecosystem gathered for the Space Futures Workshop, Nov. 29-30, to examine future technologies and forge a path towards ensuring the U.S. maintains its advantage in the increasingly congested and contested space domain.

  • AFRL joins New Mexico national labs in postdoc speech competition

    The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, collaborated with Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, to conduct a postdoctoral, or postdoc, Ted Talk-style speech competition called the Rio Grande Research

  • AFRL awards contract for pioneering spacecraft in region of Moon

    The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $72 million contract to Advanced Space LLC to demonstrate space situational awareness, object detection and tracking in the region of the Moon, supporting a resurgence of interest in lunar exploration and development across civil, commercial and

  • AFRL celebrates unified science and technology enterprise

    The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, recognized the 25th anniversary of one AFRL at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Oct. 28, 2022, with a celebration led by AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle and Chief Master Sgt. James “Bill” Fitch, AFRL command chief. The event honored the

  • AFRL’s Ascent satellite marks end of mission objectives

    The Air Force Research Laboratory's small satellite named Ascent has completed all of its mission objectives and is performing extended operations to characterize the survivability of the commercial-off-the-shelf, or COTS, bus electronics in the geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, space environment.

  • AFRL aerospace engineer receives international recognition

    KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFRL) - Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate principal aerospace engineer Dr. Khanh Pham was recently recognized as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). Pham joined AFRL in 2004 following graduation from the University of Notre Dame,