Gallery: Aerospace & Defense Roundup: November 1, 2021

A crew medical concern has joined a weather issue in delaying the anticipated launch of NASA’s SpaceX-contracted Crew 3 Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) until Nov. 6 at the earliest. Read the full story. 

Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

A U.S. Air Force A-10 is returning to service more than three years after it was severely damaged during an inflight emergency and belly landing in Michigan, after an extensive rebuild that required remanufacturing components of the attack jet. Read the full story. 

Credit: U.S. Air Force

Boeing delivered the first KC-46A refueling tanker to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force on Oct. 28, marking the first international delivery for the program. Read the full story.

Credit: Robert Sullivan

Barely a month after completing a $100 million series A fundraising round, Chinese startup Autoflight has flown a prototype of its V1500M three/four-passenger electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi. Read the full story.

Credit: Autoflight

Spurred by rising space business opportunities, reinsurance and risk management service provider Applied Underwriters on Nov. 1 said it was taking on former PartnerRe Direct and Facultative Space staff for a new Washington-based joint venture called Applied Underwriters Aerospace. Read the full story.

Credit: Applied Underwriters

U.S. naval aviation will need to field a next-generation stealth fighter, a carrier-based unmanned combat air vehicle, advanced rotorcraft and an assortment of new long-range missiles and directed energy weapons in 2030-2035, a newly-released vision document shows. Read the full story.

Credit: Northrop Grumman

Amazon said Nov. 1 it will launch the KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 prototype satellites for its low Earth orbit-based broadband offering via two ABL Space Systems RS1 rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a year. Read the full story.

Amazon/Project Kuiper