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Rocket Report: Vandals spray-paint Buran; China to launch first crew in 4 years - Ars Technica
Jun 11, 2021 3 mins, 25 secs
This week there's news about the space race between two rocket billionaires, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, and still more news about Branson's other space company.

This mission will launch from Blue Origin's spaceport in West Texas on July 20, which is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969.

The report said only that the company was still studying its next potential launch date.

Northrop Grumman said Thursday it has been awarded a $287 million base contract by the US Air Force to provide engineering services to assist in sustaining the Minuteman III missile system.

The company said this Propulsion Subsystem Support Contract 2.0, awarded last month, has a contract ceiling of $2.3 billion over 18.5 years.

Virgin Orbit targets late June for next launch.

The company said it has shipped its LauncherOne rocket to Mojave Air and Space Port, where the rocket is now comfortably mated to Cosmic Girl's left wing.

Although tests are ongoing, Virgin Orbit said it is targeting the last week of June for the launch.

On this flight, the air-launched rocket will seek to deliver a total of seven spacecraft into orbit from the Department of Defense Space Test Program, SatRevolution, and the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

During the January mission, the company had a password-protected webcast, but this time around, it plans to put its first public "official mission livestream" on YouTube.

California-based rocket company Astra will acquire Apollo Fusion, a company developing electric propulsion systems for spacecraft, as part of its effort to create vertically integrated space systems.

Billionaires Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen have asked a senior judge to overturn planning permission for a space port in the Highlands, the BBC reports.

A reporter on the Chinese space industry, Andrew Jones, shared news this week on Twitter about yet another Chinese launch startup.

Dongfang Space, he said, has raised $62 million in funding for both expendable and reusable launchers.

I have no idea whether this company will succeed, and I'm only sharing this news item because the company's rocket rendering is probably the worst one I've ever seen.

Relativity Space announced Tuesday that it has raised an additional $650 million in private capital, and the new funding will accelerate development of the "Terran-R" launch vehicle.

This large orbital rocket will be about as tall as SpaceX's Falcon 9, and the entire vehicle will be reusable—the first and second stages, as well as the payload fairing, Ars reports.

Powered by seven main engines, the Terran R vehicle will initially launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Relativity has set a goal to launch in 2024, and company CEO Tim Ellis said the company has signed a binding contract for multiple launches with an "anchor customer" he declined to name.

China rolled out a Long March 2F rocket Wednesday in preparation to send the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and three astronauts to an orbiting space station module, SpaceNews reports.

Authorities have yet to reveal the planned launch date or the identity of the primary and backup crews for the mission.

Shenzhou-12 was expected to launch around June 10 Beijing time, but a week-long delay to the launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo mission likely pushed back the date by a similar length of time.

The test flight, a precursor to a crewed flight in 2023, will launch on a human-rated Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III rocket, complete with a modified upper stage compatible with a crew spacecraft.

Technical challenges in the development of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket could prevent the Defense Department from ending its reliance on the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine by 2022 as required by Congress, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published Tuesday.

"A US-produced rocket engine under development for ULA's Vulcan launch vehicle is experiencing technical challenges related to the igniter and booster capabilities required and may not be qualified in time to support first launches beginning in 2021," GAO said.

Military confirms its interest in "rocket cargo" program.

"This idea has been around since the dawn of spaceflight," said Greg Spanjers, an Air Force scientist and the Rocket Cargo program manager.

June 11: Pegasus XL | SDA Technology mission for Space Force | Vandenberg, Calif.

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