The reusable spacecraft launched by China on Friday has returned to Earth. China itself does not refer to it as a spaceplane, but experts on the Chinese space program characterize it as a spacecraft similar to the winged U.S. X-37B that resembles a small space shuttle.
The Trump White House released its fifth Space Policy Directive today. This one establishes principles for space cybersecurity — satellites and their supporting infrastructure.
China launched a “reusable experimental spacecraft” September 4 from its Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi desert. Rumors are circulating on social media that it is a spaceplane akin to the U.S. X-37B, but China has not confirmed that.
Rocket Lab is back in the news today. After successfully launching its Electron rocket on Sunday night for the first time since a failure two months ago and then getting an FAA operator’s license for its new Virginia launch site, the company revealed that a second spacecraft was aboard that Sunday launch — First Light, a technology demonstration of its Photon spacecraft. …
On the heels of a successful return-to-flight launch, Rocket Lab announced today that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved its operator license to launch rockets from Wallops Island, VA. Rocket Lab’s launches to date have been from New Zealand, so this will give the California-based company not just another launch site, but one on U.S. soil.
The Space Development Agency announced today that Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems have won contracts for the first step in developing constellations of small, interconnected satellites to transmit data to the warfighter. Each company will build 10 satellites to be launched in 2022.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 30-September 5, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in recess except for pro forma sessions until September 8. The House has only pro forma sessions scheduled through September 14, but committees may meet between now and then.
NASA just added one more astronaut, Jeannette Epps, to the crew of the first operational flight of Boeing’s Starliner commercial crew system. But the agency has now revealed that flight will not take place until December 2021. Boeing’s competitor, SpaceX, is gearing up for its first operational mission 8 weeks from now, but Boeing will not reach that milestone for another 16 months.
NASA says it is confident the first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS), Artemis I, will take place by November 2021, but is hedging on setting a target launch date. If it goes at that time, it will be a full three years beyond what NASA committed to when SLS was formally confirmed in 2014. Costs are growing commensurately.
Today the Republican National Committee highlighted President Trump’s achievements on a range of foreign policy and trade issues that also included the space program. Summarizing the various space policies and strategies issued by the White House over the past three and a half years, and creation of the Space Force, it offers no hint on his plans for a second term if he is reelected.