Boeing delivered a third C-17 transport to the United Arab Emirates during a ceremony at the company’s final assembly facility in Long Beach, Calif. The Middle East nation has six C-17s on order. It received its first C-17 in May and the second in June. Those two aircraft “have been flying around the world in support of humanitarian missions,” stated UAE Air Force and Air Defence Col. Pilot Humaid Al Mansoori at the July 28 ceremony. He added, “The fleet’s newest airlifter is a welcome addition so that we can continue to be ready for any contingency, anywhere and anytime.” Boeing is scheduled to deliver the fourth UAE C-17 later this year and the remaining two next year. There are now 234 C-17s in service worldwide: 211 in the Air Force and 23 with international customers.(Boeing release)
NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance are all preparing to launch their next-gen rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, two of them before the year is out. One is expected to liberate the U.S. launch enterprise from its reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines, while all three rockets could eventually carry astronaut crews.