NASA has informally included Spacehab single and double modules on Space Shuttle International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, the STS95 and STS96 in October and December 1998, raising the company's hopes that it will be used widely on Shuttle ISS missions after the end of the Shuttle Mir Mission programme (Flight International, 13-19 August).
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.
