The key to Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historic 1903 flight was wing warping. Today, NASA engineers are developing a similar technique to increase the performance and efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft.

HAMPTON, VA—NASA’s Langley Research Center has installed a huge six-axis robot that will be used to deposit epoxy and carbon fibers for making aerospace structures and parts.

WASHINGTON—NASA’s new Vertical Assembly Center, a 170-foot-high machine that will be used to assemble elements of the agency’s Space Launch System, is ready to weld parts for the rocket that will send humans to an asteroid and Mars.

HUNTSVILLE, AL—NASA has successfully tested complex rocket engine parts produced with the additive manufacturing process laser metal sintering.

WASHINGTON—NASA has received a patent for devising a “dynamically variable spot size” system for use in laser welding and laser brazing of metal components.