Daimler-Benz Space and Russia's Khrunichev have formally established a joint venture to market the three-stage Rokot (the former SS-19 Stiletto missile) as a commercial launcher to be operated from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 1997. The Rokot can place 1,000kg into low-Earth orbit. It was used to place a small satellite into orbit on a test flight in 1994.
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.
