NASA's $154 million Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Auroral Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite was placed into orbit by a Boeing Delta II booster after launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 25 March.
The satellite, operating from an 987 x 45,993km, 89.9°-inclination orbit, will be the first to study how the Earth's magnetic field responds to changes in the solar wind by taking images of emissions from neutral atoms, protons, electrons and other particles.
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.
