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NASA began flight testing with Joby Aviation’s all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on 30th August, NASA reported. The testing forms part of the agency’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign. eVTOL aircraft could potentially be used as air taxis transporting people and cargo.

For this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening got to sit down with Ronald van der Breggen, a Dutch business strategist and founder and CEO of Route206. Established in 2013 in the Netherlands, the company works with a wide range of clients in the space and satellite sector

August’s financing table is again led by a space company raising funds via a proposed merger with a SPAC: VirginOrbit who may raise up to US$483 million* from this deal. Over two dozen other rounds raised a total in excess of US$700 million. Besides yet another SPAC, other noteworthy deal structure were Swiss IoT constellation’s Astrocast’s,

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) barred Virgin Galactic from flying SpaceShipTwo until the final mishap investigation from its July flight is over, Reuters reports. The FAA is investigating a deviation in the descent of the Virgin Galactic space plane to determine the issues would not affect public safety. Virgin Galactic rocket plane carried Richard Branson to space on 11th July.

Firefly’s Alpha rocket launched on 2nd September suffered a fatal problem, exploding in the California sky. The company’s first ever orbital test flight lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:59 p.m. EDT. The final launch was nearly an hour after an initial try had to be aborted during countdown.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. announced the construction of a new production facility capable of supplying up to 2,000 reaction wheels per year. The news comes after the company signed contracts to supply major satellite constellations. The new production facility will add to Rocket Lab’s existing 35,303 square metres of manufacturing competence.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 23 - 29 August 2021”. A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global

The test flight of Launch Vehicle 0006 took place on 28th August when the rocket suffered an anomaly. Lifting off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska's Kodiak Island at 6:35 p.m. EDT, this was the California Bay Area start-up’s third orbital test flight attempt.

SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft launched at 3:14 a.m. EDT Sunday on a recycled Falcon 9 rocket to go to the ISS, NASA said. Carrying more than 2170 kg of cargo, it lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services mission is scheduled to dock at the station around 11 a.m. today.

The giant James Webb Space Telescope is ready to be shipped to its launch site at Europe´s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The telescope has successfully completed its final tests and is being prepared for its shipment. The final tests were carried out at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in California, U.S.