Will Amur ever fly? Nearly six years have passed since the state-backed Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a reusable rocket called “Amur-LNG.” Clearly designed in response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Amur was intended to have a reusable first stage, methane-powered engines, and the capability to deliver 10.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode. At the time, Russian space officials said they planned to debut the rocket in 2026, so basically right about now. The latest update from Roscosmos suggests the Amur rocket won’t begin flight tests until 2031, Ars reports.

Year for year... To summarize, when the Amur rocket was announced in 2020, its flight date was scheduled for 2026. Some six years later, its projected launch date has moved five years into the future. The only reasonable conclusion is that Russia’s answer to the Falcon 9 rocket will not arrive any time soon, and it is unlikely to do so until at least two decades after SpaceX first landed an orbital rocket.

Space Force to buy more launches. It seems as though $5.6 billion wasn’t enough. That was the news from the US Space Force on Friday, July 17, when military officials announced they were tripling the maximum value of one of the service’s National Security Space Launch contracts to $17 billion, Ars reports. The expansion of the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 contract comes as the Pentagon signals rising demand for military satellite launches. The NSSL program is set up to allow Space Systems Command, which oversees the Space Force’s launch program, to select from a pool of launch providers for individual missions to deliver the military’s satellites to orbit.

Appetizing… The $17 billion portion covers just one part of the NSSL Phase 3 program. This segment, known as Lane 1, covers a subset of the Space Force’s more risk-tolerant missions. Lane 2 includes more expensive strategic satellites and carries a maximum value of $13.7 billion, a number sufficient to cover an estimated 54 launches projected for procurement through 2029. In April, Space Systems Command said it had identified 25 additional Lane 2 missions on top of the 54 included in the original contract just one year before. Now, the Space Force is tripling the maximum value for the Lane 1 contract. With last week’s announcement, the combined maximum value of Lane 1 and Lane 2 has reached more than $30 billion, and the number is likely to climb again. (submitted by biokleen)