A Rocket Lab Electron booster has lifted off from New Zealand, sending 30 small satellites on their way to orbit. It then turned around and parachuted into the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

New-space investment group Voyager Space Holdings is buying the Launch Co., a launch support startup based near Anchorage, Alaska, that has been partnering with other marquee space startups and increasingly the U.S. military.

The FAA next year will begin using live telemetry data from commercial space vehicles to determine the extent of airspace it needs to protect during launch and re-entry operations.

NASA’s third cargo resupply line to the International Space Station, operated by privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., is delaying the debut launch of its reusable winged Dream Chaser spaceplane until 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic-related work issues, the company said on Nov. 17.

Launch service operator Arianespace has traced the cause of the Nov. 16 failure of a Vega rocket to an improperly connected electrical harness on the launcher’s Avum engine.

SpaceX’s NASA-contracted Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station late Nov. 16.

The Vega light launcher, operated by Arianespace, is to place two satellites into orbit on Nov. 16–Taranis, to study electromagnetic phenomena taking place above storms, and Seosat-Ingenio, focused on the observation of Spain’s territory.

Speculation is mounting over what’s next for U.S. human deep-space exploration following the Nov. 3 presidential election, but one noted space historian believes the U.S. will still land on the Moon within 10 years.