NASA is aiming to launch Space Shuttle Atlantis's STS-117 International Space Station mission on 8 June. The flight was delayed from March by external tank insulating foam damage caused by a hailstorm. A decision to swap the current tank for a new one could yet push back the launch date.
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.
