The first wing assembly for NASA's Orbital Sciences-built X-34 spaceplane technology demonstrator has been completed in a major milestone towards the first air-launched flights next year. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, meanwhile, has invited proposals for Future X vehicles as part of the continued series of demonstrators to validate technologies beyond those used in the X-34 and X-33 programmes. Contract awards are to be made in December.
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.
