The European Space Agency has conducted the first automatically guided descent and landing of a parafoil test vehicle to support the Crew Transfer Vehicle programme for the International Space Station. The vehicle, carrying a 1,700kg payload and a global-positioning system, was dropped from an aircraft at 1,800m altitude.
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.
