Hughes Space and Communications has inaugurated the use of a liquid apogee engine (LAE), built by Kaiser Marquardt, aboard PanAmSat's GalaxyXR satellite. An apogee engine is used to raise the elliptical geostationary transfer orbit to a circular geostationary orbit. The new LAE provides a heavy-lifting capability for larger satellites with its 100,000lb thrust (445kN).
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.
