The launch of NASA's Lunar Prospector orbiter aboard a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV) 2 has been delayed from 24 September until 23 November, to allow additional time to complete testing on the booster. It will be the LMLV2 maiden flight and the first launch from the Spaceport Florida's commercial launch pad 46 at Cape Canaveral. The LMLV 1 had its first successful flight on 23 August from Vandenberg AFB, California, after a maiden-launch failure in 1996.
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.
