Arianespace has successfully orbited two telecommunications satellites: the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 condosat for operators King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Hellas Sat; and GSAT-31 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Arianespace’s first launch of the year took place on Tuesday, 5 February 2019 …

The French national space agency, the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), hosted the first international meeting of the Space Climate Observatory (SCO) at its head office in Paris on 1 February 2019. This working meeting brought together more than 25 space agencies and four international organizations, with representatives from the …

Reaching a desired orbit in space is set to become easier and more cost-effective, as space transportation start-up Momentus is soon to prove with its Vigoride service. German launch service provider, Exolaunch has signed a contract worth over U.S.$6 million with the Momentus to move its CubeSats and Microsatellites into …

The UK’s space sector has seen significant growth in income, exports and employment with total income now standing at 14.8 billion pounds (U.S.$19.2 billion), Science Minister Chris Skidmore has announced. The main findings from the independent ‘UK space industry: size and health report’ show that, compared to the 2016 survey: …

The Canadian Department of National Defence has awarded a C$15 million (U.S.$11.43 million) contract to Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) for development of multipurpose microsatellites to support Arctic surveillance. Upon successful completion and testing of the prototype, two additional microsatellites will …

Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) have used new space technology to predict droughts and increased bushfire risk up to five months in advance. ANU researcher Siyuan Tian said the team knew they needed to move into space to get closer to understanding the complex nature of drought. They …

OHB System and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have signed an agreement that will see the companies collaborate on a commercial Lunar Surface Access Service (LSAS). The agreement, signed during the Ilon Ramon Space Conference on Tuesday, will provide a lunar lander that can allow payloads up to 150kg to the …

U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dan Coats, along with the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), gave testimony to the U.S. Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence about the …

By Blaine Curcio and Tianyi Lan One could be correct in saying that China has a history of firing rockets into the sky. The earliest evidence of fireworks dates back to the ninth century Tang Dynasty, and over the last thousand-plus years, China has continued to put on some of the world’s …

Russia is preparing a national concept for Moon exploration by March 2019, according to the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. This news comes after the U.S. national space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  (NASA), put forward its Lunar Gateway project which will see the agency construct a gateway …