Boeing-led Sea Launch has won its first contract for a Zenit booster flight from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Space Systems/Loral-built Asiasat 5 communication satellite will be orbited in 2008 by Land Launch, which is similar to the Zenit 3SL booster flown by Sea Launch from a floating platform in the Pacific. This follows a contract to launch another Loral-built spacecraft, the EchoStar 11 direct-broadcast satellite, aboard a 3SL in 2007.
Source: Flight International
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.
BAE Systems has completed its acquisition of Ball Aerospace, with the move further strengthening its US business presence.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has retired its Mars helicopter Ingenuity after the craft suffered damage upon landing.
