First, on a personal note, it’s been an honor to lead this magazine to deliver impactful journalism to AIAA members for 11 years. With this issue, I conclude my time as editor-in-chief. As I chart my next step, I will always cherish my years at AIAA, whose mission is more vital now than it has ever been.
For those in the United States who have lost jobs or are living in fear of that, I am confident that AIAA will continue to do all it can to support you and equip you to adapt.
Perhaps the stories in this issue can be a welcome break for those who are stressed. For the cover story, we elected to dive deeply into a single topic that’s arisen with the arrival of the Trump administration: the Pentagon’s emerging Golden Dome plan. Jen Kirby looks at the strategic questions raised by the initiative [page 20] and provides insights from across a full spectrum of the think tank community, from the Heritage Foundation to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Fred Kennedy, the inaugural director of the Space Development Agency and now an entrepreneur, takes on the technical questions in an analysis piece. He shows us how the plan could be doable, and he created a Satellite Tool Kit graphic to demonstrate his reasoning. We also have a feature about the technology that, possibly as soon as next year, could empower the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to detect the first pixels of reflected starlight from a Jupiter-sized planet beyond our solar system.
In the business realm, one of the great dramas unfolding is whether and how Boeing will be able to fully right itself. In “The Big Question,” Cat Hofacker asked what more can be done, and she provides responses from four experts: a former Boeing chief engineer, a congressman who led one of the investigations into the MAX 8 crashes, an organizational culture expert and a researcher who participated on a panel that recommended safety improvements. On the topic of aviation research and development, “perpetual” flight under solar power has long been a dream, and you can learn about the latest aircraft that’s attempting to do it.
These and other stories in this issue, we hope, will provide some solace and perhaps inspiration.
