NASA's TRW-built Lewis remote-sensing technology demonstration satellite, which failed in orbit on 26 August 1997, two days after launch, did so because of a "combination of a technically flawed attitude control system design and inadequate monitoring of the spacecraft during its early operations phase", says NASA.
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.
