News

The Japanese government is to begin use of a quasi-zenith satellite system to provide a failover solution for support of its Self Defence Force (SDF) in the event of a malfunction on the U.S. GPS system. This move comes amid fears that China and Russia and their development of anti-satellite capabilities that will enable them to attack satellites in orbit.

In a Washington, DC, speech, Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya outlines his country's new National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) and Mid-Term Defense Plan (MTDP) that included new Japanese positions on national security space that require close cooperation with its American ally.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) views space warfare as an important component of its concept of war, and is developing a range of capabilities and tactics to carry out space operations, as well as bolstering its organizational and command and control capacity to enable such operations, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report China Military Power: Modernizing a Force to Fight and Win, published in January 2019.

The successful launch of the Vietnamese MicroDragon Earth observation satellite took place on 18 January 2019 from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), one of Japan’s largest shipping companies, is to increase the roll-out of Inmarsat’s Fleet Xpress Service, across the remainder of its owned and managed fleet. This underlines the confidence placed in the high-speed satellite service by major shipping lines and reinforces the scope of the digital transformation sweeping the industry.

Konnect Africa, an initiative of the satellite operator Eutelsat (Euronext: ETL) dedicated to satellite broadband on the African continent, today announces the launch of its Internet access offers in Côte d'Ivoire.

The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded D-Orbit SpA with the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) contract n 4000126167 titled "Development of a Precise In-Orbit CubeSat Deployer."

Boeing announced Thursday its investment in Isotropic Systems Ltd., a London-based startup pioneering next-generation solutions to better connect people and enterprises around the globe.

Alba Orbital Limited, a Glasgow based pioneer of miniaturized satellites, announced on 15 January 2019 the sale of the first two Unicorn-2 PocketQube spacecraft platforms to U.S.-based stealth mode startup, Stara Space. Stara plan to use these two satellites as a proof of concept for an eventual constellation to service other space users with high speed real-time data connection, storage, and computation

Monday 14 January in Dakar, Mary Teuw Niane, Senegal’s Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Jean-Pascal Le Franc, CNES’s Director of Programming, International and Quality, signed an agreement to step up cooperation between France and Senegal in space.