Long Lehao, a leading Chinese rocket designer, says it is likely that several unmanned flights of the Shen Zhou spacecraft will be made before a crew is put into orbit, reminding observers that the Soviet Union and USA flew several unmanned missions before the first manned flights of the Vostok and Mercury spacecraft in 1961.
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.
