The US Celestis organisation in Houston, which, in 1985, offered a service to place cremated human remains into space aboard the former Space Services Conestoga booster, has now approached Orbital Sciences with a view to use the Pegasus and Taurus boosters to provide a similar commercial service, starting in 1996. It will cost $4,800 per capsule of remains, 1,000 of which could be flown on a single mission.
Source: Flight International
China’s AVIC has secured a contract from the China Manned Space Agency to develop a winged, reusable spacecraft called Haolong.
The UK Space Command’s first owned earth observation microsatellite has been launched, providing the inaugural element of a planned space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) constellation.
Orbital launch pioneer SpaceX is being contracted by the American space agency NASA to develop a so-called “US Deorbit Vehicle” that can safely return the International Space Station to Earth via controlled re-entry.
