Spaceflight News

— Vega propellant tank mishap  (arstechnica.com) (europeanspaceflight.com) (eoportal.org) (PDF: arianespace.com)

— AVUM 4th stage (“upper stage”) (Pic: eoportal.org)

— Transporter-9 satellite deployment malfunction (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Iran successfully launches bio-capsule (payloadspace.com)

— Chinese methalox rocket progress continues (cgtn.com)

— Stratolaunch tests hypersonic vehicle (thedrive.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 12 Dec, 2012: NIAC releases Space Debris Elimination (SpaDE) Phase 1 report (nasa.gov)

— Next week (12/19 - 12/25) in 1976. Achievement unlocked