Wizz Air, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest low-fare, low-cost airline has signed a contract for 12 firm A320 Family aircraft, including A319s and A320s, plus 12 options, becoming a new Airbus customer. All the aircraft will be powered by International Aero Engines V2500-A5s and be configured in a single-class layout, seating up to 156 passengers in the A319s and up to 180 passengers in the A320s. Deliveries will begin in the summer of 2007.

NASA and Russian flight controllers outside Moscow are in control of the International Space Station, after mission control in Houston was evacuated ahead of Hurricane Rita. Aboard the station, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips have a key piece of life support equipment up and running, just in time for the next space station crew.

Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite say they have found newborn black holes, just seconds old, in a confused state of existence. The holes are consuming material falling into them while somehow propelling other material away at great speeds.

These black holes are born in massive star explosions. An initial blast obliterates the star, yet the chaotic black hole activity appears to re-energize the explosion several times in just a few minutes. This is a dramatically different view of star death, one that entails multiple explosive outbursts and not just a single bang, as previously thought.

ST. LOUIS, August 17, 2005 –- The U.S. government, on behalf of the Government of Kuwait, accepted Kuwait’s first AH-64D Apache Longbow multi-role combat helicopter from Boeing (NYSE: BA).

Life for the two crew members on board the International Space Station has been busy this week. They installed a replacement part for an oxygen-generating system, unpacked a recently arrived cargo carrier and disassembled a radiation-detection experiment.

Airbus is contributing directly to the Hurricane Katrina emergency relief effort with the largest cargo carrier in the world. An Airbus aircraft, the A300-600 Super Transporter, nicknamed “Beluga” because of its unique, whale-like shape, is assisting the governments of France and the United Kingdom by transporting critical relief supplies being donated to aid victims in the Hurricane stricken areas of the United States.

Washington, DC. - The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of investigators to Medan, Indonesia to assist in the accident of a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737 on Monday, September 5, 2005.