Flight

• [New] A new Chinese carrier rocket has made its first flight today, paving the way towards China's ambitious mission of sending travellers into space by 2045.
• [New] Drones and related technologies are projected to actually create 100,000 new jobs in the United States alone by 2025.
• [New] With thousands more satellites needed to meet global coverage and bandwidth demands, SpaceX is expected to fly dozens of Starlink missions in the coming years.
• [New] The planes from WestJet are already being converted into cargo aircraft and will join Amazon Air's fleet in 2021, while the Delta planes will become part of Amazon's network in 2022.
• [New] In the United States, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will conduct a second uncrewed test flight in March in advance of a first crewed test flight in summer 2021.
• [New] 2021 will see Rocket Lab launch a Photon mission to the Moon in support of NASA's CAPSTONE program, and also launch the first missions from Rocket Lab's two additional launch pads - Launch Complex 2 in Wallops, Virginia, and the new Pad B at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
• [New] Airbus outlined plans to bring a hydrogen-powered passenger plane to the general public by 2035, showcasing three potential designs.
• [New] Starting in 2022, the FAA's Remote ID requirement will necessitate every drone sold in the U.S. that weighs more than 0.55 pounds to come with a way to broadcast its location and identification to local authorities or a digital license plate for drones.
• [New] In early 2021, Rocket Lab will launch another recovery mission, opening up a new era of possibility for satellites in orbit.
• [New] Several small-satellite launch companies hope to reach orbit in the coming year, including Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space and Virgin Orbit.
• [New] In the United States, there has been a similarly lukewarm return to air travel, with the industry now not expecting a return to pre-COVID levels before around 2024.
• [New] The newer Co-Pilot 360 2.0 with Active Driver Assist will be coming out later in 2021 on the Mach-E and Ford F-150 and will have more robust Tesla Autopilot-like features.
• In the world of commercial spaceflight, SpaceX plans to continue its rapid cadence of testing prototypes for the enormous Starship spacecraft, with the goal of an orbital test flight before the end of 2021.
• Firefly said Wednesday its Alpha rocket will be used in four ALS-led smallsat launches starting 2021 under a multi-year agreement.
• Given the inherent danger of rocket powered space travel, the Starship system will complete many, possibly hundreds of flights before flying passengers, with the first Earth to Earth test flights beginning as early as 2022.
• The XB-1 will reach supersonic speeds during test flights which will inform the design of a supersonic airliner named Overture: Flight tests are expected to begin in 2021 in Mojave, California.
• While SN8 was simply a prototype never intended to fly to space, the core stage at Stennis is flight hardware that NASA will use for the Artemis 1 mission in late 2021.
• Lockheed Martin Corp, the maker of the F-35 jet, will help Japan build a new stealth fighter plane its air force wants to field by the mid-2030s to keep pace with aircraft technology advances made by neighboring China.
• SpaceX could send its first uncrewed spacecraft to Mars by 2022, with astronauts flying to the red planet within the next four to six years.
• AFRL is running a separate project, dubbed R2-D2, to develop an autonomous drone using AI-driven systems that is expected to square off against a human pilot in a fighter jet by 2024.
• Lockheed Martin is working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to develop a new fighter plane for the Japanese Air Force which will replace Japan's F-2 fleet.
• FO packaging is expected to gain wider adoption as 5G, AI, and autonomous driving take flight in the coming years - and revenue stemming from FO packaging is expected to reach $2 B - $2.5 B by 2025.

Last updated: 11 January 2021