Welcome to Version 7.30 of the Rocket Report! The US authorities depends on SpaceX for lots of missions. These embody launching nationwide safety satellites, placing astronauts on the Moon, and international broadband communications. However there are hurdles—technical and, more and more, political—on the highway forward. To place it generously, Elon Musk, with out whom a lot of what SpaceX does would not be attainable, is likely one of the most divisive figures in American life right this moment.

Now, a Democratic lawmaker in Congress has introduced a bill that might finish federal contracts for particular authorities workers (like Musk), citing conflict-of-interest considerations. The invoice will go nowhere with Republicans in command of Congress, but it surely is sufficient to make me pause and assume. When the Trump period passes and a brand new administration takes the White Home, how will they view Musk? Will there be an urge for food to scale back the federal government’s reliance on SpaceX? To reply this query, you could first ask if the federal government will actually have a selection. What if, as is the case in lots of areas right this moment, there is no viable substitute for the providers supplied by SpaceX?

As at all times, we welcome reader submissions. For those who do not wish to miss a difficulty, please subscribe utilizing the field under (the shape is not going to seem on AMP-enabled variations of the location). Every report will embody data on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets in addition to a fast look forward on the subsequent three launches on the calendar.

Blue Origin flight focuses on lunar analysis. For the primary time, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin house enterprise has put its New Shepard suborbital rocket ship by a few minutes’ price of Moon-level gravity, GeekWire reports. The uncrewed mission, referred to as NS-29, despatched 30 analysis payloads on a 10-minute journey from Blue Origin’s Launch Website One in West Texas. For this journey, the crew capsule was spun as much as 11 revolutions per minute, versus the everyday half-revolution per minute. The ensuing centrifugal pressure was equal to one-sixth of Earth’s gravity, which is what could be felt on the Moon.