![]() The $11.5 million award was granted through the Orbital Services Program-4, which is designed to foster launch services that can be quickly deployed. Astra's new Rocket 4 launch vehicle, which remains under development, has won a launch contract from the US Space Force, the company announced this week. And if that flight goes well, Virgin Galactic said it is prepared to commence commercial service during the second quarter of 2023. That flight will carry two pilots and four company employees, who will serve as "mission specialists," to evaluate the customer experience during the mission. To that end, the company said data collected during the flight would be analyzed in the coming weeks, and assuming the review goes well, the next mission will be a powered spaceflight. After the test, Virgin Galactic said the glide flight closes its "final validation test points" of a campaign to ensure the aircraft and space plane are ready to resume powered flights.Ĭommercial service on the horizon. After this, the spacecraft glided back to the runway in New Mexico, testing modifications to the spacecraft's flight controls and handling. ![]() ![]() On Wednesday morning, the VMS Eve aircraft took off from Spaceport America and subsequently released the VSS Unity spacecraft at an altitude of about 14 kilometers, Ars reports. Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. If you are planning important launch milestones this year, please take note!Īs always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Welcome to Edition 5.35 of the Rocket Report! It may be difficult to believe, but we are in the final days of April already, meaning the year 2023 is nearly one-third over.
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