The first launch from Spaceport Florida's refurbished launch pad No 46 at Cape Canaveral is scheduled for September 1997, when a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV 1) will carry NASA's Lunar Prospector orbiter into space. After the failure of the maiden flight of the LMLV 1 in 1995, NASA had considered switching to another launch vehicle.
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.
