Mars upgrades
The European Space Agency will upgrade two of the instruments that will fly on the Mars Express orbiter in 2003, to help make up for some of the science activities lost by the recent failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter. An infrared channel will be added to an ultraviolet spectrometer and an ultra-high resolution channel will be added to the 1m (3ft) resolution stereo colour imager.
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.
