The Philippines' Diwata 2 remote sensing satellite was successfully launched into orbit on board a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-IIA satellite launch vehicle from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre on Monday, 29 October 2018.

The Japanese New Space sector has never had it so good, though no one denies that there is much more to do. Investments are up, a robust ecosystem is emerging, and the Japanese government and large trading houses are now supportive of the sector: significant progress when compared to just a few years ago, according to a special report in the Financial Times.

A team from the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has successfully completed pre-launch tests in Japan of the Earth observation system KhalifaSat, the first satellite to be entirely built in the UAE by Emirati engineers.

Space BD, the Japanese New Space startup company specializing in business development of Japanese space technologies and projects, announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with Innovative Solutions In Space n.v. (ISIS), to be the distributor of the Dutch company’s small satellite solutions and components for the Japanese market.

Japanese New Space exploration and space resources company Ispace has signed a launch agreement with SpaceX to launch their first privately-funded Lunar mission in 2020.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the Indian state-run telecommunications company, is partnering with Japan’s Softbank and NTT Communications to provide 5G networks and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity across India, including through Softbank’s OneWeb satellite constellation that is currently under construction.

e-GEOS, a company jointly owned by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Telespazio, has won new contracts in Indonesia and Japan to provide satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence from the COSMO-SkyMed Earth observation satellite constellation for maritime domain awareness and other applications.

Japanese New Space company PD Aerospace intends to develop a space plane capable of carrying passengers by 2023, making it the latest of a growing number of companies in the Asia-Pacific region seeking to enter the small satellite and space tourism market over the coming years.

In what a growing number of analysts are calling a bold move, Japan's ANA Holdings – owner and operator of All Nippon Airways (ANA) – is partnering with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and companies such as Softbank, Takenaka, and HIS, to create AVATAR X in a bid to revolutionize space exploration and development through the use of avatar space systems controlled by pilots on Earth utilising virtual reality (VR) technology.

Myanmar is mulling creating its own national space agency and the acquisition of an Earth observation small satellite with the assistance of Hokkaido University in Japan. Myanma engineers and scientists are set to take part in the manufacture and integration of some the components and instruments, according to reports in the Myanma media.