Russia's Glonass navigation system will have 18 satellites in orbit by 2005 and 24 by 2010, says the country's federal space agency. Seven satellites are to be launched in the next 18 months. Expansion to 18 satellites will cost $120 million and to 24 saellites will cost twice that, says Viktor Khosenko, Glonass chief at the Applied Mechanics Research and Production Association.
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.
