IBM is supplying an SP supercomputer to the Maui High Performance Computing Centre to assemble digitally enhanced images of orbiting space debris tracked by USAF telescopes. The SP can process 480 billion calculations a second - providing images in less than 5sec. It has the processing power of 320 Power 3-II microprocessors, 224 gigabytes of memory and 2.9 terabytes of disc space.
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.
