X Prize Foundation is organising a Personal Spaceflight chief executives summit from 19-20 October, ahead of its X Prize Cup event to be held at the Southwest Regional Spaceport in New Mexico. Guest speakers could include Burt Rutan and the chief executive of new suborbital tourism entrant Space Adventures. The foundation is inviting all the members of the Personal Spaceflight Federation, a nascent trade association for suborbital tourism operators, to the summit.
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.
