Congress passed a continuing resolution shortly before 9:30 p.m. Dec. 2 to keep the government funded through Feb. 18, capping a hectic day on Capitol Hill. The deal to keep the government open didn’t come together until the morning of Dec. 2, when House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Further Extending Government Funding Act, keeping funding at fiscal 2021 levels with a few exceptions, one being an extra $4.3 billion for the Department of Defense’s accounts to pay for the care of Afghan evacuees on military bases.

As the Pentagon increasingly pivots its focus to strategic competition with China, the U.S. will look to expand its partnership with South Korea to increase security across the entire Indo-Pacific region, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Dec. 2 during a visit to the northeastern Asian nation.

Reports of production troubles on the SpaceX rocket that could contend for military cargo deliveries happened to coincide with a different company’s concept receiving an early nod—one that might not require a rocket at all.

The Space Test Program (STP)-3 launch scheduled for Dec. 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., will prototype new warfighter capabilities, add nuclear launch detection sensors to orbit, and enhance Space Force efforts to improve resiliency in a new “threat-driven paradigm.” In all, 16 payloads from Space Force, NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and others will ride on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 vehicle’s longest mission to date, estimated to clock seven hours, 10 minutes at a cost of $1.14 billion. The mission will include combined operational and nuclear detection and prototype satellites in the areas of optical communication, space domain awareness, and weather.