The Spaceport Florida Authority has been issued a licence by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation to operate a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The organisation, a state agency created to boost commercial space enterprises, will charge $300,000 a launch to use the new pad or the recently refurbished Trident 2 missile Pad 46 at the Cape. This launch pad will be inaugurated with the flight of the NASA Lunar Prospector orbiter in September.
Source: Flight International
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.
BAE Systems has completed its acquisition of Ball Aerospace, with the move further strengthening its US business presence.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has retired its Mars helicopter Ingenuity after the craft suffered damage upon landing.
