The first flight of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) Falcon private-venture launch vehicle will carry the TacSat-1 satellite into low-Earth orbit for the US Department of Defense's Office of Force Transformation. The TacSat-1 data communications micro-satellite, being built by the US Naval Research Laboratory, will be launched from Vandenberg AFB, California, early next year.
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.
