As NASA's Cassini continues on course to become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Saturn, on 30 June, it has returned high-resolution images of one of the planet's 31 known moons, Phoebe, from a distance of 13,400km (8,310 miles). Phoebe appears to be a captured asteroid or a Kuiper belt object, since it orbits Saturn in an eccentric retrograde path.
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.
