The Space Shuttle Columbia mission to deploy the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility has been delayed two months from January 1999, to allow more time for payload testing. The delay, and International Space Station snags have jolted the NASA 1999 Shuttle schedule.
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.
