The USA has invited Israel to fly an astronaut aboard a Space Shuttle mission as part of a joint space agreement between the USA and Israel. Russia has also invited South Africa to fly an astronaut on a Soyuz TM visiting mission to the Mir 1 space station. South Korea plans to fly a journalist to the Mir and Germany has booked a third flight of a German astronaut to the orbital space base, in December 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.
