US company Spacehab and Germany's OHB-System have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide jointly commercial life sciences services on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station (ISS). They will establish a biotechnology business and upgrade the Commercial Biological Research Unit, which is planned for the STS107 mission in September next year as a precursor to ISS missions.
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.
