Space Adventures and XCOR plan to develop a reusable suborbital spacecraft for space tourism. The XCOR rocket-powered Xerus spacecraft would take off and land like an aircraft, carrying a pilot and one space tourist on a 100km (62 mile) altitude, hour-long flight. Tourist flights could begin between 2005 and 2006.
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.
