News

China Satellite Communications Corp. (China Satcom), a subsidiary of the China Aerospace and Science Technology Corporation (CASC), is aiming for a 1 billion Yuan (U.S.$148 million) Initial Public Offering (IPO) in June 2019. Despite China’s plans to almost double the size of the global space industry, fundraising is not the main objective.

Portugal has become the latest country to establish a national space agency. The new entity, called Portugal Space, will be headquartered in the Azores island of Santa Maria, the site of a proposed spaceport and a European Space Agency (ESA) Estrack tracking and telemetry station.

Thuraya Telecommunications Company, a subsidiary of the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company, Yahsat, today announced that it has signed a Service Partner agreement with Elcome, one of the largest marine technology system integrators. Elcome will provide Thuraya’s products and services worldwide across key vertical markets.

Spanish satellite telecommunications operator Hispasat, has completed the successful installation of a hub at its gateway in Ixtlahuaca del Rayón (México) to manage the Smartellites™, hiSky terminals that offer mobile satellite services (MSS) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions through Amazonas-5 satellite Ka-band, which covers 79% of the Mexican population. Both companies signed an agreement in 2017 to jointly commercialize this solution in Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and North Africa.

Pakistan signed a space cooperation agreement with China at a ceremony in Beijing held on 27 April 2019 providing a framework for the training of Pakistani astronauts, space science and exploration, as well as the establishment of a Sino-Pakistani space committee that will discuss other cooperative initiatives in space.

Surrey Satellite Technology has signed a contract with Airbus to provide high resolution optical data from the SSTL S1-4, an Earth observation satellite which was launched in September 2018.

ORBCOMM has announced that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has extended their contract for another year through ORBCOMM’s partner Kordia.

U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) reached a milestone with the signing of its 100th space situational awareness agreement when the Romanian Space Agency signed an agreement with USSTRATCOM on 25 April 2019. These agreements foster openness, predictability of space operations and transparency in space activities.

Skyrora, the Edinburgh-based New Space launch company that is aiming to become the first UK private company to launch payloads into Earth orbit, is searching for launch sites in the British Isles from where it can conduct a series of launcher tests over the coming year, according to UK press reports.

The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT has approved 300 billion Won funding (U.S.$264 million) for the development of three remote sensing satellites to be used for resource management, environmental monitoring, and space science.