Singaporean New Space debris removal company Astroscale has announced that it has raised U.S.$50 million from investors led by INCJ Ltd., as well as from SBI Investment Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. This fourth round of funding means that the company has now raised U.S.$102 million in total since its founding in 2013.

Chinese New Space launch company LandSpace suffered a failure of the third stage of its Zhuque-1 satellite launch vehicle Saturday, 27 October 2018, as it attempted to become the first Chinese private launch company to reach orbit, according to Andrew Jones in Space News.

Vietnam is set to have its MicroDragon Earth observation satellite launched from Japan in December 2018, while it also prepares to take the chair of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) in January 2019, further cementing Vietnam’s status as a major space power in Southeast Asia.

Vietnamese and Japanese officials revealed last week that they expect the Vietnamese radar Earth observation satellite, LOTUSat-1, to be launched sometime in 2019 after years of regulatory and diplomatic delays.

Chinese New Space satellite launch company LandSpace is expected to attempt the maiden orbital launch of its Zhuque-1 launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) in China's Gobi Desert on 27 October 2018, according to a report by Andrew Jones in GBTimes.

Thai New Space entrepreneur James Yenbamroong, the founder and CEO of mu Space, is emerging as perhaps the preeminent New Space advocate, investor, and role model in Southeast Asia. He has articulated an exciting and bold space vision, is building a solid and cutting edge venture in the form of mu Space, and is now ready to invest in and mentor other budding entrepreneurs in the region with his recent U.S.$100 million venture unit announcement. SpaceWatch.Global sat down with James to talk more about his investment plans and ambitions.

As the Asian Century takes on an interstellar dimension, who will write the rules of the road? Rajeswari Rajagopalan writes that space will likely be no exception to Asia’s great power rivalries.

Astroscale Japan Inc., an affiliate of Singaporean-Japanese New Space company Astroscale that aims to utilise technology top remove space debris in Earth orbit, has contracted with Russian satellite launch provider Glavkosmos/GK Launch Services to launch its End of Life Services by Astroscale –demonstration (ELSA-d) spacecraft on a Soyuz-2 cluster mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome in early 2020.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc., a developer of orbital launch vehicles for the small to medium satellite market, announced on 10 October 2018 the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with York Space Systems for the development of integrated launch services and spacecraft mission solutions.

Audacy, a space communications service provider based in the U.S. and Singapore and deploying the first commercially licensed inter-satellite data relay network, has announced that it had achieved a significant milestone by securing pre-service commercial agreements valued at over U.S.$100 million.