Aerospace firm Ananth Technologies has signed deals to build six foreign-owned satellites in India, a first for a private firm, leveraging the country's low cost base to attract global customers.

Japan's Astroscale Holdings has been selected as the commercial partner for Phase I of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) first debris removal project, a groundbreaking step by Japan to commercialize space debris removal, the company announced 12 February 2020.

Japanese financial company SBI Holdings announced at the end of January 2020 that it is raising as much as 100 billion Yen (U.S.$920 million) for a new venture capital fund that will focus on Japanese and foreign 5G network, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), and healthcare startups.

Azerbaijani satellite operator Azercosmos and Infostellar, the Japanese Ground Segment as a Service provider, signed an agreement to enable Infostellar customers access to their satellite constellations from the Azercosmos Ground Station (AGS), located in the Absheron peninsula. The agreement was announced on 6 February 2020. AGS’ location is uniquely positioned …

By Dr. Malcolm Davis There’s been great interest about the establishment of a “United States Space Force” by the Trump Administration. President Trump began promoting the concept of a sixth and fully independent military force for space since early 2018, and the actual space force was formalised under a Congressional …

Last year was a record year for the space industry with the Seraphim Space Index showing continued momentum from global venture investors who increased their investment in the sector by 21%.

2020 promises to be a big year in space, but not only for the well-known events you keep on hearing about, such as the expected crewed launches from U.S. soil on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner. In the background, thousands of new space entrepreneurs are executing on business plans that take advantage of the tremendous decrease of the costs of accessing space and operating in it. Many of these entrepreneurs have important milestones in 2020.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will bolster the scale and scope of its geospatial monitoring toolkit thanks to collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will expand the capacity of FAO's accessible platforms for forestry and land-use assessments.

In its latest analysis of satellite manufacturing and launch services, Satellites to be Built and Launched by 2028, Euroconsult projects that the satellite market will experience a radical transformation in the quantity, value and mass of the satellites to be built and launched with a four-fold increase in the number of satellites at a yearly average of 990 satellites to be launched, compared to a yearly average of 230 satellites in the previous decade.

We are pleased to present "India’s Self-Inflicted Foreign Policy Challenges in 2020”, originally published on 4 January 2020 in The Diplomat.