During a state visit to India made 14-18 January, 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Nahendra Modi further cemented ties between the two countries with a range of agreements that cover cooperation in a number of areas, to include space. In a joint statement issued on …
Read More »#SpaceWatchGL Op’Ed: Want Faster Data and a Cleaner Planet? Start Mining Asteroids
How do we kickstart a space-based economy that includes everything from communications, orbiting satellites, clean energy, and asteroid mining? Here, planetary scientist Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida lays out a proposed roadmap to get there. This essay was originally published by Aeon on January 9, 2018, and is …
Read More »Iraq’s Talia increases transponder lease on Arabsat-5C
Talia Limited and Arabsat are continuing their partnership by announcing Talia’s lease of multiple transponders on the Ka-band Arabsat-5C High Throughput Satellite (HTS), located at 20 degrees East. The multi-year agreement will offer high-quality Internet Protocol (IP) Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services in Iraq, Kurdistan, and Afghanistan that utilise …
Read More »Did China Just Launch SaudiSat-5B?
The Chinese launch of what many believe to be a military reconnaissance satellite, the Ludikancha Weixing-3 (LKW-3) – or Land Surveying Satellite 3, on January 13, 2018, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) may have also included the SaudiSat-5B Earth observation satellite, according to a report in SpaceFlight Insider. …
Read More »Arabsat and CETel to Offer Business Continuity Services
Arabsat and German communications solutions provider CETel are partnering to provide business continuity services across the Middle East and North Africa. CETel specialises in end-to-end communications solutions, with an emphasis on fiber-optic cabling. Both companies indicated that emerging Big Data requirements of clients, arising from the growing Internet of Things …
Read More »SATCOM Along the Belt and Road? Sri Lanka’s SupremeSAT Receives Investment From China’s Tatwah Smartech Co. Ltd.
Xiaoru Cai, the Chairman of China’s Tatwah Smartech Co. Ltd., took part in a ceremony on January 15, 2018, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, announcing a U.S.$30 million investment in SupremeSAT, the only Sri Lankan satellite communications company. The investment is intended to help SupremeSAT expand its geographical reach with its …
Read More »Israeli-American Industrial Foundation to Invest in Space Projects
An Israeli-U.S. industrial research and development foundation, the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, has announced its selection of Israeli industrial projects in which it shall invest in 2018. At a meeting of the BIRD Board of Directors held in Tel Aviv, Israel, in December 2017, U.S.$7.75 million was …
Read More »Cambodia and China Great Wall Industry Corp. Sign Agreement for Belt and Road Communications Satellite
Cambodia has signed a framework agreement with China Great Wall Industry Corporation for the acquisition of a communications satellite, along with its associated ground infrastructure and launch. The satellite agreement was one of nineteen agreements made between Cambodian and Chinese officials during a bilateral trade meeting on January 11, 2018, …
Read More »UAE’s Al Aan TV HD to be Broadcast on Arabsat’s BADR-4 Satellite
Arabsat has announced that Dubai-based Al Aan TV will be broadcast in High Definition (HD) on Arabsat’s BADR-4 satellite, allowing the channel to be beamed into millions of homes in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia. Al Aan TV broadcasts a mix of entertainment and current events programming …
Read More »#SpaceWatchGL Op’Ed: Spacepower and Sea Control in the South China Sea and Beyond
The recent announcement by China to orbit ten Earth observation satellites to solidify its sovereign claim for the South China Sea is a harbinger of the competitions to come for the control of other vital strategic waters across the globe. ThorGroup’s Chairman and President, Dr. John B. Sheldon, examines this phenomenon …
Read More »