Commercial

Europe is getting into the space manufacturing race as the European Commission awards Airbus a €3-million (US$3.5-million) contract to study the potential for assembling spacecraft in low-Earth orbit using robotic systems.

A UK-based company has carried out the first static engine test of a space rocket in Britain in over half a century. The Skylark L rocket carried out a full-scale launch test while restrained to the ground at the Kildemorie Estate in North Scotland.

Ahead of its launch before the end of the year, Vauxhall has thrown the covers off the UK's only all-electric light commercial van that can tow a trailer. The Vivaro-e is a battery-electric delivery van with a range of up to 330 km (205 mi).

​Volkswagen has released a silent flurry of new electrics, including a commercial version of its popular I.D. Buzz electric Kombi van. The I.D. Buzz Cargo concept is a mobile workshop with integrated laptops, level 4 autonomy, automated inventory and a whopping 550-km (342 mi) range.

Stratolaunch has yet to send its first payload into orbit, but the company announced today that it is developing a new family of air-launched boosters that will enter service in 2020. The four rockets of various sizes will be carried by the world's largest aircraft, the Stratolaunch.

Toyota has unveiled its second prototype of the Project Portal hydrogen fuel cell truck. This "Beta," as Toyota refers to it internally, is the second iteration of the truck, adding more range, more room in the cab, and better usability. This is a more commercially-viable truck, Toyota says.

Daimler Trucks is establishing a global organization for electric mobility called the E-Mobility Group. To kick that off, the company announced that its division in the US, Freightliner, will be adding two new electric commercial trucks to its offerings: the Freightliner eCascadia and the eM2 106.

Space tourism has been long touted as 'coming soon', but the only opportunity to buy your way into space were rare private trips to the International Space Station with price tags of US$20 million. Now Orion Span has revealed Aurora Station space hotel, promising an ambitious 2022 opening date.

Not many of us think about commercial vans. Yet all of us have ridden in one or may even eventually have cause to own one. These are the workhorses of the delivery world. The Metris is Mercedes' current offering and the Passenger variant is made specifically for shuttling people.

Incidents, including last year's Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crash, have led some politicians in New Mexico to question the future of Spaceport America, where Virgin is an anchor tenant, and to even call for the US$200 million facility to be put up for sale.

The return of manned launch capabilities to US soil heralds the start of an exciting time in the space industry. But what were the driving factors behind the change, and how do the planned replacements match up? Read on as we delve deeper into NASA's mission to end the reliance on Russia by 2017.

In an attempt to pave the way for commercial, philanthropic, and civil use of small UAVs in the US and around the world, a number of players in the field have teamed up to form the Small UAV Coalition.