W.J. Hennigan

In deep, cold space, nearly a million miles from Earth, a giant telescope later this decade will scan for the first light to streak across the universe more than 13 billion years ago.

The 7-ton spacecraft, one of the most ambitious and costly science projects in U.S. history, is under construction for NASA at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s space park complex in Redondo Beach, Calif.

Capt. Jeff "Bong" Haney was headed back to base in his F-22 Raptor fighter jet, ripping through the frigid Alaskan night beyond the speed of sound at more than 1,000 mph, when things started going terribly wrong.

Packed tight in cold-weather gear to protect him from the bitter temperatures, the Air Force pilot pulled back on the control stick at about 38,400 feet to gain altitude. Then Haney saw his plane was beginning to fail him.

A caution light glowed green through his night vision goggles, alerting him that a section of the aircraft was overheating. Almost instantly, the F-22’s onboard computers detected an air leak in the engine bay and began automatic shutdown of various systems — including the main oxygen supply.

Gasping for air, Haney set the throttles to idle and began lowering the plane to the snow-covered valley below. About 35 seconds later, Haney’s plane began to roll upside down. He couldn’t recover. There amid the Talkeetna Mountains north of Anchorage, Haney, 31, crashed and died.

The crash was another grim episode for the controversial Lockheed Martin Corp.-made F-22 fighter jet that has been in service since 2005, yet never called into combat despite conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The plane, the military’s most expensive fighter jet, has continued to experience equipment problems — notably with its oxygen systems.

The U.S. government has taken the first steps toward allowing commercial space companies to launch its national security satellites into outer space.

LOS ANGELES -- Concerns last week that combat drone aircraft were compromised by a computer virus were dismissed by the U.S. Air Force.

In a rare disclosure, the Air Force revealed that computer systems involved in its drone program were infected with a virus, but it did not hinder flight operations in any way.

LOS ANGELES -- Northrop Grumman Corp., the last big-name aerospace company headquartered in Southern California, is headed out of town this week.

The nation's second-largest military contractor, founded in 1939 by visionary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, is officially moving its main office to Falls Church, Va., on Monday. It is a milestone for the corporation that along the way absorbed big names like TRW Inc., Litton Industries Inc., Westinghouse Electronic Systems and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical.

Today, the company is an industry giant with about $35 billion in annual sales, building such things as sophisticated satellites, high-flying spy drones and the ghostly B-2 stealth bomber. While 300 members of its corporate staff will depart, it still will have about 30,000 jobs in Southern California and remain one of the region's largest private employers.

The company joins an exodus of military companies -- including Lockheed Martin Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. -- that have abandoned Southern California since the mid-1990s in favor of headquarters nestled nearer to decision makers in Washington.

SANTA BARBARA -- An experimental, arrowhead-shaped aircraft that could reach speeds of 13,000 mph above the Pacific Ocean is set to blast off on a test flight Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif.

The flight is scheduled to test new technology that would provide the Pentagon with a vehicle capable of delivering a military strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

Under mounting pressure to keep its massive budget in check, the Pentagon is looking to cheaper, smaller weapons to wage war in the 21st century.

A new generation of weaponry is being readied in clandestine laboratories across the nation that puts a priority on pintsized technology that would be more precise in warfare and less likely to cause civilian casualties. Increasingly, the Pentagon is being forced to discard expensive, hulking, Cold War-era armaments that exact a heavy toll on property and human lives.