Norway's Telenor satellite Services has awarded a contract to Hughes Space and Communications to supply an HS-376 high-power spin-stabilised satellite, called the Thor 2A, to be launched on a McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 in 1997, to provide 15-Ku band services to Scandinavia. Telenor's first Thor satellite was another HS-376 purchased in orbit from the British Satellite Broadcasting Company.
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.
