United 
Launch Alliance has cleared the next launch of an Air Force X-37B reusable spaceplane to occur this week at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., after concluding that it has sufficiently mitigated the chances of a booster anomaly repeating itself from a previous satellite launch. A ULA Atlas V rocket is now scheduled to carry the X-37 orbital test vehicle into space on Dec 11, states the company’s Dec. 7 release. This mission, dubbed OTV-3, will be the third space flight of the two-vehicle X-37 fleet. Back in early October, a ULA Delta IV rocket experienced an upper-stage engine malfunction during a GPS IIF satellite launch. The Atlas V utilizes a different version of this same engine, but the Air Force and ULA delayed the X-37 launch until they understood better what happened. ULA’s investigation of the Delta IV anomaly “concluded that a fuel leak occurred” and that the leak “started during the first engine start sequence,” states the release. While the anomaly investigation continues, “all credible crossover implications” for the Atlas V “have been thoroughly addressed and mitigated,” clearing the way for the OTV-3 launch, states the release.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…