First systematic study of vision problems that have surfaced

HOUSTON — The International Space Station program is looking to a late March launch of a Russian Soyuz capsule with three crew as its first opportunity to demonstrate a much-abbreviated, four-orbit crew transfer to the orbiting science laboratory, NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said Jan. 17. The planned March 27 launch of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft would carry NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.

Deep Space Industries plans to launch spacecraft from 2015 onward

BEIJING — China will have the capacity to build six to eight large spacecraft a year, including space station modules and big reconnaissance satellites, at an assembly and test plant due for completion in August 2014.

PARIS — Ankara is planning development of a national satellite launch system capable of delivering military and civil spacecraft to orbit, according to Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz. Following a Jan. 3 meeting of Turkey’s Defense Industry Executive Committee, Yilmaz said the government will enter negotiations with Turkish weapons builder Roketsan Inc. for the early concept design phase of a new launch system “to ensure that military and civilian satellites can be sent into space,” according to a Jan. 3 statement.

SATELLITE EXPORT: The U.S. Export-Import Bank has authorized an $87.1 million loan guarantee to facilitate the assembly and sale of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Ku-band satellite to Hispasat Canarias, a subsidiary of the Madrid-based Hispasat. The Amazonas-4A satellite is expected to launch in 2014 and occupy Hispasat’s orbital slot over Brazil to provide high-definition television broadcasts to the Americas.

EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — NASA is preparing to flight test a scaled version of a towed-glider air-launch concept that it believes has the potential to “dramatically” reduce the cost of launching payloads into orbit.

ESA brings ISS experience with ATV to critical-path responsibility