Space News reports that China’s state-owned and commercial space sector actors “are planning a total of more than 70 launches across 2023 as the country’s space activities continue to expand.” The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) “will again aim for more than 50 launches this year, according to an announcement from an early January meeting.” China launched 64 times in 2022. Combined launch plans “of CASC and commercial actors could see the country top 70 launches this year from three inland spaceports, the coastal Wenchang spaceport and the Haiyang spaceport facilitating sea launches.” Among CASC’s major launches “will be two Shenzhou crewed missions to the Tiangong space station and a supporting pair of Tianzhou cargo spacecraft.”
Full Story (Space News)
Tag: Prepares
SpaceX Prepares Starship for Test Flight
The Hill reports that the first launch “of SpaceX’s massive rocket, called Starship, could be coming soon.” The company shared “a series of photos highlighting the vehicle’s progress ahead of its highly anticipated test flight.” Starship consists “of two major components: a massive first-stage booster called the ‘Super Heavy’ and an upper stage known as ‘Starship.’” In typical SpaceX fashion, “both aspects of the craft are designed to be fully reusable.” The company has been “working its way towards the program’s first orbital test flight, which CEO Elon Musk says is coming soon, and could take place as soon as the end of February.”
Full Story (The Hill)
Delta Preparing for 5 Million Travelers During Thanksgiving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Delta Air Lines is expecting “the heaviest Thanksgiving traffic Delta has seen since the start of the pandemic” – over 5 million passengers for the holiday period. Recovering from pandemic staffing cuts means that around “a quarter of the airline’s employees have joined the company over the last two years.” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said, “We have hundreds of thousand[s] of years of service that retired and we have a whole new generation coming in.” Another result of the pandemic was the airline’s first Chief Health Officer, Dr. Henry Ting. Delta is now more focused “on the mental health and emotional well-being of its employees, including hiring a behavioral psychologist and staff clinicians.”
Full Story (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)