FAA and NASA have pledged to coordinate their standards and to work together on commercial space launch and re-entry, point-to-point suborbital transportation, spaceports, airspace design and a host of other issues now that the era of commercially licensed human spaceflight has begun.

Virgin Orbit will make a second attempt to reach orbit with the LauncherOne small satellite rocket on Jan. 13, with backup launch windows available later in the month in the event of a delay.

Following its record-setting 26 launches in 2020, SpaceX kicked off the new year with delivery of the Turksat 5A broadband satellite into orbit on Jan. 7.

Arianespace is willing to operate microlaunchers if the opportunity arises, either as a way to meet demand or as proof of concepts for heavier launchers, CEO Stephane Israel said.

The decision announced on Jan. 7 allows the contractors to move forward with developing the satellites in Tranche 0 of the future Tracking Layer.

Virgin Galactic has completed post-flight inspections and root cause analysis of last month’s thwarted suborbital flight test of SpaceShipTwo, the company said on Jan. 7.

The Space Development Agency has awarded SpaceX $150.4 million to launch up to 28 satellites for the Pentagon’s tracking and transport layers.

Denver-based Voyager Space Holdings, Inc. plans to acquire a majority stake in XO Markets and its largest subsidiary, Houston-based Nanoracks, which earlier this month launched the commercial Bishop airlock to the International Space Station.