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Blue Origin's New Shepard completed its first suborbital flight in more than 15 months on Tuesday. The vehicle lifted off from the company's West Texas test site at 11:42 a.m. Eastern, reaching a peak altitude of 107 kilometers before landing about 10 minutes later. The vehicle carried 33 research payloads and 38,000 postcards from an educational nonprofit organization, but no people. The flight was the first for New Shepard since a mishap in September 2022 on another payload-only flight that was blamed on the structural failure of the vehicle's engine nozzle. The company said it would resume crewed flights of New Shepard "soon" but was not more specific. [SpaceNews]
Two Space Force generals were among officers that received long-delayed Senate confirmation of their promotions Tuesday. The Senate confirmed the promotions of Space Force Gens. Michael Guetlein and Gen. Stephen Whiting after being nominated for promotion to four-star general in July. Their promotions, and those of hundreds of other officers across the armed forces, had been held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in protest of the Pentagon's policy of reimbursing travel costs for troops seeking abortions. Guetlein is poised to succeed now-retired Gen. David "DT" Thompson as vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, while Whiting will assume the top post at U.S. Space Command, succeeding Army Gen. James Dickinson. [SpaceNews]
Intuitive Machines says it is delaying the launch of its first lunar lander mission by a month to mid-February. The company said late Tuesday its IM-1 mission, which was scheduled for launch Jan. 12 on a Falcon 9, will slip because of "shifts in the SpaceX launch manifest." That is a reference to delays in the Falcon Heavy launch of the X-37B, which is using the same pad that IM-1 will use. The Falcon Heavy delay means the pad will not be ready in time to support a launch by Jan. 16, when the January launch period for IM-1 closes. Intuitive Machines did not disclose a new landing date for the mission but previously said landing would take place about a week after launch. [SpaceNews]
Astrobotic, meanwhile, says its Peregrine lunar lander is ready for launch next month. The company said Tuesday that it had completed pre-launch processing for the lander, scheduled to launch Jan. 8 on the first United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur. That launch would set up a landing attempt for Peregrine on Feb. 23. Peregrine, like IM-1, is carrying payloads for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as well as for commercial customers. [SpaceNews]
The European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to work with the Belgian region of Wallonia to build up its space industry. EIB signed an agreement this week with Belgian government officials to develop Wallonia's space industry, marking the first time Europe's lending arm has entered such a deal with a region in the European Union. EIB will work with Skywin, Wallonia's aerospace cluster, in support for Earth observation and reusable launch vehicle efforts in the region. [SpaceNews]
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Satellite operator Yahsat announced plans Tuesday to merge with geospatial company Bayanat. The merger would create a combined entity called Space42 that would be valued at $4.1 billion. Bayanat would own 54% of the merged company, based in Abu Dhabi. The companies described Space42 as the region's "first AI-powered space technology company," but didn't elaborate on the role that AI would play. Yahsat operates several GEO communications satellites. [The National (UAE)]
ESA says the first launch of the Ariane 6 should not be affected by an aborted upper stage engine test earlier this month. In an update Tuesday, ESA said an investigation is underway of the Dec. 7 hot-fire test of the upper stage in Germany, which was shut down after two minutes. That test was intended to study the performance of the stage in "degraded" conditions rather than those in a normal flight. ESA said a practice countdown last week in French Guiana, which included a brief firing of the Ariane 6 core stage engine, was a success, and reaffirmed a launch period of between June 15 and July 31 for the first Ariane 6. [SpaceNews]
The Senate passed another short-term reauthorization of the FAA that extends the commercial spaceflight "learning period." The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Tuesday after the House passed it last week. The bill extends various FAA authorities, set to expire Jan. 1, through March 8. That includes what the commercial spaceflight industry calls the learning period that restricts the FAA's ability to regulate safety of commercial spaceflight participants. The House and Senate continue to work on a long-term FAA reauthorization. [Roll Call]
Astronauts on China's space station are preparing for a spacewalk. Chinese media reported Wednesday that astronauts will perform a spacewalk "within the next few days," but did not disclose who would participate in the spacewalk or what tasks they would perform. The spacewalk will be the first for the crew that arrived at the station on the Shenzhou-17 mission in late October. [Xinhua]
Virgin Galactic announced plans Tuesday for its next suborbital spaceflight. The Galactic 06 mission, scheduled for Jan. 26, will be the first to carry four private astronauts; previous flights carried three customers and one Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor. The company did not disclose the names of the customers but said they came from Austria, Ukraine and the United States. Virgin Galactic announced last month that it would decrease the flight rate of its VSS Unity spaceplane from monthly to quarterly and end flights in mid-2024 to focus resources on the development of its next-generation Delta vehicles. [Virgin Galactic]
| | Nowhere to Go But Up
"Demand for New Shepard flights continues to grow and we're looking forward to increasing our flight cadence in 2024."
– Phil Joyce, Blue Origin senior vice president for New Shepard, in a statement after the successful flight of the suborbital vehicle Tuesday. That launch was the first, and almost certainly only, New Shepard mission in 2023.
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