The US Air Force has exercised its third option under its small-launch-vehicle contract with Orbital Sciences, for a Pegasus launch of the STEP 4, space test programme satellite, in 1997. Other options exercised, were for the STEP 3 and fast on-orbit recording of transient events satellites, in 1995 and 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.
