NASA's Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) satellite is to be air-launched by an Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL booster over the Pacific Ocean on 16 August. The $45 million FAST satellite will be used to investigate how particles are accelerated in space to create auroras.
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.
