Norhtrop Pushing Hard to Join Launch Industry Through XS-1 Contracts

Northrop Grumman might be "playing to win" the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's XS-1 programme, but the aerospace firm's interest in a reusable spaceplane for rapidly launching small satellites runs far deeper than any one project or contract.

The company's vice-president of space systems resiliency Doug Young tells Flightglobal that Northrop will likely press forward with its XS-1 concept through "other ways and means" if it isn't downselected for the programme's $140 million demonstration phase.

Northrop is one of three industry teams sponsored by DARPA to bring its competing concept up to the preliminary design review stage. It's teamed with Virgin Galactic but wouldn't confirm if it is using the company's LauncherOne system as an expendable upper stage.

The other teams are Boeing – with Blue Origin – and Masten Space Systems, partnered with XCOR Aerospace.

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Did Political Pressure Interfere With FAA Certification of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two?

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an experimental permit to Scaled Composites to begin flight tests of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in 2012 despite serious deficiencies in the company’s application relating to safety analysis and risk mitigation, according to documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week.

When renewing the annual permit in 2013 and 2014, the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA AST) issued waivers that exempted Scaled Composites from explaining how it evaluated and planned to mitigate against human and software errors that could cause a fatal accident.

The office renewed the permit and issued the waivers over the objections of some of its own safety experts, who wanted the deficiencies corrected and complained about political pressure to approve applications. The waivers were issued without Scaled Composites requesting them.

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SpaceShipTwo Suffers in Flight Anomaly: Spacecraft Lost

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Reports out of the Mojave are there is at least one fatality.  SS2 flies with two during the test flights.  I sincerely hope that is incorrect and both pilots are fine.

Virgin Galactic Going into Sat Launching Business?

Virgin Galactic unveiled a new partnership Tuesday that pushes the throttle forward on its plans for commercial suborbital space travel and a new small satellite launch capacity.

The deal involves Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments and Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceliner group bankrolled by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson to fly "pay-per-view" customers to the edge of space.

Specifics of the partnership, which includes Aabar investing $280 million in Virgin Galactic in return for an equity stake, were outlined today at the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) AirVenture convention in Oshkosh, Wisc., which is now under way.

The article is muddled. Any better sources out there?