NEW YORK You can’t ground pilots or aircraft or repress the flying spirit for long. In the 10 months since Sept. 11, the U.S. general aviation sector is returning to the flight lines determined to build a more positive image and hold on to a corner of the sky.

WASHINGTON Scientific priorities set by a top-flight outside scientific panel will help NASA decide how much capability it wants to build into the International Space Station, according to Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who anticipated the priorities would serve as a “good running start” on setting a final ISS configuration.

CAPE CANAVERAL Details emerging from China are gradually exposing the secretive approach maintained by the Chinese to house and train its new astronaut corps in preparation for Shenzhou manned space flights as early as next year. In addition, the orbital module section of the Shenzhou 3 unmanned test vehicle for the manned spacecraft design continues to maneuver in space following its launch Mar. 25.

NEW YORK Northrop Grumman Corp. is expected to encounter little difficulty winning regulatory approval of its proposed acquisition of TRW Inc., even though the transaction will concentrate some critical aerospace and defense technologies among fewer large players.

WASHINGTON Moving where it thinks its military customers and much of the aerospace industry are going, Boeing Co. is merging its defense, space and communications businesses into a single unit, Integrated Defense Systems. By the end of the year, Boeing expects to have combined its second- and third-largest business areas—Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, and Space and Communications— into an entity it hopes will generate what CEO Phil Condit described as “integrated solutions—the joining of network-centric operations with integrated air, land, sea and space-based platforms.”

WASHINGTON A National Research Council panel has breathed new life into the planned but unfunded New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

TOKYO As further evidence of belt-tightening in the Japanese space program, the Space Activities Commission has decided not to support development of the GX medium-lift booster. To be built by Galaxy Express, a partnership of seven Japanese companies led by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Trading Co., the GX is to replace the National Space Development Agency’s J-l.