ORBIT: Sierra Nevada’s slick new space plane ditches capsules for the shuttle route.

This stylish unmanned space plane was recently given its official name, Tenacity, and a pair of exotic composite material wings to complete its sleek design. Constructed by the Colorado-based aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corporation, Dream Chaser is meant to launch vertically atop a booster rocket and completes its missions with gliding runway landings similar to NASA’s retired fleet of space shuttles.

Tenacity is tentatively scheduled to blast off for its debut in late 2021, locked to the tip of a powerful United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“It’s an SUV for space — a Space Utility Vehicle,” Kimberly Schwandt, Sierra Nevada’s communications director, told Space. “Our dream is to have a whole fleet of space planes.”

Photos at the link — it really has a Jetsons vibe.

JOEL KOTKIN: How Race Politics Burns Out. “In doing research for my 1992 book Tribes, I found ethnic success was less about gaining unquestioning compliance on cultural and political matters from the majority than in encouraging behaviors, such as frugality, hard work and mutual support. This latter approach has propelled virtually every successful dispersed ethnic group, from the Jews and British to the Chinese, Indians, Palestinians, Lebanese, and West Indians.”

Sorry, that offers insufficient opportunities for graft, and grift. Capitalizing on white guilt is easier and more lucrative, until it stops working. And it hasn’t stopped working yet.

AT AMAZON, Disposable Face Mask, Pack of 50, New Packaging.

NATO: Trump, France’s Macron voice concern about Greece-Turkey tensions. “NATO allies Turkey and Greece are embroiled in a dispute over Turkish oil and gas exploration in disputed eastern Mediterranean waters. Turkey said on Friday France should refrain from steps that escalate tensions after the French military conducted training exercises with Greek forces in the region on Thursday.”

HMM: Is AOC’s ‘Squad’ Running the Rioters? One Just Called for MORE ‘Unrest In the Streets.’

FLASHBACK: Time to put China on lockdown for its dishonesty amid coronavirus crisis: China’s response was inept, dishonest and utterly inconsiderate of the world. We need to teach the Chinese government a lesson.

Also: Xi Jinping’s China did this: The corrupt, criminal regime wasted 40 days blocking information while it crushed domestic dissent and ensured COVID-19 would become a global pandemic.