Plan would enable SpaceX to compete for U.S. military launches

BEIJING — Now classifying its Shenzhou spacecraft as operational equipment, not experimental, China launched its fifth manned space mission on June 11. The objectives of the 15-day Shenzhou 10 mission are to further develop China’s technologies for docking and supporting human life in space, laying the groundwork for the space station that is supposed to be operational around 2020. With Shenzhou 10, the phase aimed at perfecting docking and spacewalking techniques should be complete.

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U.S. Strategic Command will operate the missile-warning spacecraft

NASA’s long-lived Opportunity rover is rolling toward a new destination at Endeavour Crater on Mars, following one of the nine-year mission’s most striking discoveries, a rock rich in clay minerals that points to an early, biologically friendly era dominated by water with a neutral chemistry.

NEW DELHI — India’s plans to loft France’s SPOT-7 satellite and six other small international spacecraft by early next year reflect a boost in demand for India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the global market, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). “We are getting launch orders from around the world,” a senior ISRO official says.

Reauthorization of the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) – and its federal indemnification coverage and potential new federal mandates over seeking informed-consent waivers from launch participants and crew — could be hot topics as U.S. lawmakers and industry prepare to update the nearly decade-old law this year.

Eyeing migration of black carbon, organic gases and aerosols