Many of the science instruments aboard the Cassini spacecraft en route to Saturn in 2004 have been calibrated and tested during a 1.5 million kilometres flyby of the asteroid Masrusky. Cassini was launched in October 1997 aboard a Titan 4B en route to Saturn via flybys of Venus and the Earth.
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.
