News

A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-2A satellite launch vehicle successfully lofted Japan’s latest Intelligence Gathering Satellite (IGS) reconnaissance satellite from the Tanegashima Space Center in the Southwest of Japan on Tuesday, 27 February, 2018. The IGS-Optical 6 satellite is one of several Japan has in orbit, including a number with …

The government of South Korea has approved the sale of high-resolution satellite imagery taken by Korean high-resolution Earth observation satellites. The Satrec Initiative, a local provider for earth observation, will sell the imagery, and it has already signed export deals with India and the Philippines. This approval was announced last …

by Michelle Hanlon of For All Moonkind For All Moonkind is a young organization already having considerable impact on the discussion about how we preserve our heritage in space. Just recently, it was named one of the most innovative companies in space by Fast50. The mission behind what this group …

China continues to move forward in its ongoing use of regional space and satellite deals to access the natural resources of other countries. As reported last week in The Sydney Morning Herald, China is amassing space-related contracts with countries in Central and South America, regions which have often lagged in space-related …

by Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief SpaceWatch.Global When humanity pushed its boundaries to the Moon nearly 50 years ago, did anyone really think about what would be left behind long after the astronauts had gone? They came. They saw. They left. However, that is not the case. There is a movement that …

SpaceX successfully launched Spain’s high-resolution synthetic aperture radar  (SAR) PAZ reconnaissance satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Thursday, 22 February, 2018. The successful launch of PAZ is the latest by a Mediterranean country and intensifies the space-based surveillance and reconnaissance competition of the geopolitically important sea. The …

The Google Lunar XPrize (GLXP) may have ended, but the teams that have invested nearly a decade into their lunar dreams have vowed to continue to reach their goals. TeamIndus had made huge progress towards the launch deadline of 31 March, 2018, and inspired the people of India and beyond …

Israeli satellite communications and networks company Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. is expanding its presence to Central America through its new contract with Hispasat. This multi-million-dollar venture will provide commercial broadband services throughout Mexico using capacity on the Amazonas-5 High Throughput Satellite (HTS). Based in Israel, Gilat is a worldwide leader …

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is to create its own space agency and will have its Bhutanese-built Cubesat – BHUTAN-1 – launched in 2018 from Japan. Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay announced that a space agency is to be created under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and …

Open research funding platform Guaana piloted its fund distribution platform in partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF). The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Settlement Challenge fund (2,000,000 AED, approximately U.S.$540,000) will be distributed as seed grants for all areas of research that explore bold ideas and radical solutions for living …