As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Blaine Curcio, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ‘Satellites for Nations: The Dawn of a New Era - The Key to New Markets?’, originally published at WestEastSpace.com on 24 November 2019.

The UAE has great ambitions in space and is advancing rapidly, reaching impressive milestones all the time. This year, the UAE sent Hazza Al Mansouri, their first astronaut into space and the UAE Space Agency is developing a hyperspectral satellite as well as planning the Emirates Mars Mission.

On India’s independence day, 15th August 2018, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi announced that by 2022, “some of our young boys and girls will unfurl the Tricolour in space”.

The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has said that Denmark intends to strengthen its surveillance capabilities over the Arctic Sea and airspace - to include space-based Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) - in response to Russia’s growing and expanded presence there.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $50 million financing package on 2 December 2019 with Kacific Broadband Satellites International Limited (Kacific) to provide satellite-based, low cost, high-speed, wholesale broadband internet connections to countries in Asia and the Pacific, especially in remote areas of small island nations in the Pacific, and larger island nations like Indonesia and the Philippines.

On 3 December 2019 the Australian Space Agency (ASA) signed with French aerospace giant Thales Group an agreement to develop Australian space capabilities.

The Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) Payload program reached a major program milestone completing a successful Delta Critical Design Review (CDR), Oct. 9. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) is the EPS-R Payload developer via an approximately $410 million contract awarded in February 2018 that runs through December 2023.

Kacific has selected Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, to provide terrestrial connectivity services as it readies for the launch of its first satellite, Kacific1.

When we think of space, we generally think of SciFi shows such as Star Trek, or humanity’s current plans to send manned missions to Mars. Most people don’t think about space as a business enabler, and yet that is exactly what it has become over the years.

Responding to the question from Hungarian television channel RTL, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó said that the government will spend HUF 10 billion over the next three years to be able to launch a Hungarian astronaut to space in 2024.