NASA's Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) was launched at 00.58 GMT on 6 December by an air-launched Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL booster. The $64 million SWAS will investigate the process involved in the creation of stars, when gravity collapses interstellar clouds of gas.
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.
