Tests are beginning this week at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for the first flight of Astra's small satellite launcher from the Florida spaceport, following the company's successful November demonstration mission from Alaska.

The Space Force lacks spare parts for much of the equipment needed to support launches from the Eastern and Western Ranges, an issue that could loom larger as launch activities at both spaceports increase.

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More photos needed. Four years after first unveiling its hypersonic airliner concept at #AIAASciTech 2018 @Boeing has revealed a refined, more realistic Mach 5 reusable air-breathing design targeting military and space launch roles at @aiaa San Diego event pic.twitter.com/CtpxA5OJGn — Guy Norris (@AvWeekGuy) January 4, 2022

China’s main space contractor will target more than 40 orbital launches this year, including completion of the Tiangong space station, following 48 successful launches in 2021.

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The rewards for November, 2021, have been sent out. Patrons should have received a notification message through Patreon linking to the rewards; subscribers should have received a notification from Dropbox linking to the rewards. If you did not, let me know. Document: “Galactic-Jupiter Probe Program Concept:” 1967 NASA-Goddard brochure describing a Pioneer/Voyager type of space [...]

If you look back to NASA in the mid-1960’s, it certainly seems like it was an organization filled with people who thought that the future was wide open. Apollo was merely going to be the first step; after some landings would come longer-term “camps” on the moon, with stays of a few weeks in temporary [...]

This article is the second and final part of a two-piece blog post by China Aerospace Blog on Chinese spaceplanes. The first part discussed China’s historical approach to reusability, and more specifically to spaceplanes. This part extends the discussion by reviewing current Chinese spaceplane projects, and provides a map. Mapping Current Chinese Spaceplane Projects Below is a map of all Chinese spaceplane projects, including abandoned …

This piece is the first of a two-part blog post by China Aerospace Blog on Chinese spaceplanes. It sets the context of spaceplanes in China, and goes over past attempts to make such vehicles. Part 2 will provide an analysis of current projects under development from Chinese state-owned and private companies. Table of Contents 1 – Introduction to spaceplanes 2 – China’s take on the …

Vigilant Aerospace is developing a version of FlightHorizon GCS, currently dubbed “FlightHorizonX,” that has been modified to support enhanced ADS-B transponders designed for supersonic aircraft and spacecraft tracking by NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. The modified version of FlightHorizon is designed around the higher data rates and other transponder modifications being made to the experimental […]

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