Brazil has told NASA that budget difficulties will preclude it from supplying an Express Pallet for a flight to the International Space Station in 2005. The module was part of Brazil's 1997 agreement to join the international project at a cost of $200 million, which also included selecting a Brazilian astronaut to train with NASA.
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.
