Rocket Report: Japanese spaceplane, GEO downturn, Block 5 results good

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson/SpaceX)

Welcome to Edition 1.17 of the Rocket Report! This week, we discuss a lot of new launch contracts, a Japanese plan to build a suborbital spaceplane, and Chinese plans to develop a potentially recoverable payload fairing. Also, check the launch schedule: three launches in three days!

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Japanese company working on suborbital spaceplane. Move over Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, because the Japanese startup PD AeroSpace says that it is developing a spaceplane that will be able to fly tourists to suborbital altitude by 2023. The spaceplane will use both an air-breathing jet engine mode as well as a rocket mode to generate thrust, Universe Today reports.