NASA has cancelled the planned Mars landing mission set for launch in 2001. Instead, a replacement for the Mars Climate Orbiter, which was lost in September, will lift off. A replacement Mars Polar Lander (MPL) will be launched in 2002 instead, aiming for the same site as the MPL 1, lost in December.
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.
