Weekly Roundup for SpacePolicyOnline.com: May 8-14, 2023

Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com during the week of May 8-14, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.

What’s Happening in Space Policy May 14-21, 2023

May 14, 2023. Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of May 14-21, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

ULA’s Vulcan Moves Closer to First Flight

May 11, 2023. The United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is getting closer to its first launch. Originally planned for May 4, the date for the Cert-1 mission slipped because of an upper stage accident during testing, but today ULA rolled the rocket out to the launch pad for pre-launch tests. Vulcan is ULA’s future, replacing the existing Atlas V and Delta IV rockets over the next several years. The first launch also is Astrobotic’s ride to the Moon, delivering the Peregrine lander with NASA and other payloads to the lunar surface.

Virgin Galactic Ready to Resume Crewed Flights

May 9, 2023. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans to resume crewed suborbital spaceflights later this month. The first flight will carry only company employees, but the long-awaited first commercial flight is planned for late June. The move comes almost two years after SpaceShipTwo last took people, including Branson, to space and follows a bankruptcy filing for Branson’s other space company, Virgin Orbit.

China’s Spaceplane Returns After 276 Days

May 8, 2023. China’s uncrewed reusable spaceplane, thought to be similar to the U.S. X-37B, has returned to Earth after 276 days in space. Both China and the United States are highly secretive about what these spacecraft do while they are in space, but lengthy mission durations seem to be part of the plan.

Weekly Roundup for SpacePolicyOnline.com: May 1-7, 2023

May 8, 2023. Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com during the week of May 1-7, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. (We’re actually including a bonus article that we published early this morning, May 8.) Click on each title to read the entire article.