Then, in January 2014, Orbital Sciences carried 33 satellites up to the International Space Station (ISS), where they were cast off a month later.Many of these 94 satellites were built in a standard format known as a CubeSat, a 10cm (4 inch) cube weighing 1.3kg (2.9lb) or less.
On May 22nd the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, an internet-payments firm, saw his other company, SpaceX, successfully put its Dragon craft in orbit, where it is on course to becoming the first private vehicle to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The space race was intimately bound up with American and Soviet efforts to build rockets that could have annihilated mankind; and yet at the height of the cold war, in 1975, there was a spectacular meeting in space between American and Soviet craft.In recent years, the Americans and Russians have cooperated closely to staff and supply the ISS.
The other source of revenue is ferrying astronauts to the benighted International Space Station (ISS), surely the biggest waste of money, at $100 billion and counting, that has ever been built in the name of science.The reason for that second objective is also the reason for thinking 2011 might, in the history books of the future, be seen as the year when the space cadets' dream finally died.
SpaceX, its maker, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief, along with NASA, America's space agency, whose cargo the capsule is ferrying to astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
Even if the Americans wanted to get Chinese help with the ISS project, they would have to get agreement from other ISS partners.
Last year ABI and ISS issued reports against backing WPP.
Crosby's resolution has won the backing of influential investor advisory group ISS, which is recommending its members support the proposal.
The motion is supported by Glass Lewis and ISS, the two leading shareholder advisers.
These were carried to the ISS in January and released in batches (pictured at the beginning of this article) through a sort of satellite shooter developed by NanoRacks, an American company.
In April, as part of a mission by SpaceX, an American company, to resupply the ISS, a small mothership was placed in orbit carrying 104 "sprites" (pictured below).
