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Outliers Space Briefing #6
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China launched a new crew to the Tiangong Space Station. On Friday, a Long March 2F rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft docked with the Tiangong space station ~3.5 hours later. Commander Zhang Lu and crewmates Zhang Hongzhang and Wu Fei will spend the next six months on Tiangong. (Source: SpaceNews)

The International Space Station marks 25th anniversary of continuous human presence. Sunday was the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the first long-duration crew on the ISS. Since then, there have always been people on board the station. A change in NASA’s approach to backing commercial stations has prompted concerns about a potential gap between the ISS retirement in 2030 and when new stations will be ready. (Source: SpaceNews)

Besxar, a semiconductor startup, plans to fly payloads on Falcon 9 launches. Bexar will use SpaceX to fly payloads attached to the boosters of 12 Falcon 9 launches as early as late this year. The ‘Fabship” payloads, the size of a microwave oven, will test systems Besxar is developing to produce semiconductor wafers in the space vacuum. The company believes that producing semiconductor wafers in space will be cheaper than on Earth by avoiding the enormous expenses needed for ultra-clean terrestrial environments. (Source: SpaceNews)