NASA is considering a suggestion that veteran astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962, fly on a Space Shuttle mission to study and compare the effects of spaceflight on a 76-year old. Glenn, a US senator, undergoes regular medical tests by NASA.
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.
