NASA has selected Ball Aerospace, of Colorado, to build the first spacecraft in its rapid-delivery satellite programme, in which eight companies were awarded initial contracts to prepare for work on "catalogue" craft (Flight International, 22-28 October). The Quick Scatterometer, QuickScat ,will be launched by a Titan 2 from Vandenberg AFB, California, in 1998 to fill in the ocean-wind-vector data gap created by a NASA instrument being rendered useless when the Japanese Adeos satellite was lost in orbit.
Source: Flight International
