An unmanned scale model of the X-38 Crew Emergency Return Vehicle "space lifeboat" for the International Space Station will be deployed from the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2000 to conduct an automatic re-entry and landing. The first demonstrator glide test was on 12 March at 23,000ft (7,010m). Tests from altitudes of up to 50,000ft are planned before the vehicle goes into space.
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.
