Asia Pacific

With a number of Western satellite companies developing in-orbit servicing capabilities that can refuel, maintain, and even upgrade communications satellites already in orbit, it was only a matter of time before China started to develop its own capability.

As the geopolitical race to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) intensifies, the Indian Minister of State for Defence has stated that New Delhi is actively exploring the use of AI in Indian national security.

The Australian Government will fund the development of a rocket engine as part of the creation of a sovereign launch capability.

Australian New Space satellite communications company Fleet Space opened a satellite ground station last week as part of its mission to build a constellation of small satellites and associated ground infrastructure to provide connectivity for the Internet-of-Things (IoT).

Kleos Space, the New Space space-based intelligence and geolocation company registered on the Australian Stock Exchange and headquartered in Luxembourg, has signed a contract with Danish-based small satellite manufacturer GomSpace for the supply of a Nanosatellite constellation.

The China Ocean Shipping Group Company, popularly known as COSCO, has fallen victim to a ransomware attack connected to its operations in the Americas and has resulted in the company being completely disconnected from the Internet, severing communications between COSCO, its vendors, and its clients.

Nestled inside a protective aluminum shell is a silicon disc about the size of a United States half dollar. Inscribed on this disc are microscopic messages from leaders of 73 nations solicited by Thomas Paine, then head of NASA.

Singaporean New Space company Astroscale has announced that it will open a National In-Orbit Servicing Control Facility in Harwell, UK. Astroscale is among the most high-profile company looking to remove space debris from orbit.

Gilmour Space, the Australian and Singaporean New Space launch company, has announced the appointment of two space veterans, Pamela Melroy, a former NASA astronaut, and Dava Newman, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, to its advisory board, as it prepares to enter the global small launch market in 2020.

The French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), met earlier in July 2018 to discuss working together within the framework of the Space Climate Observatory (SCO) and bilateral space cooperation in space launch and the development of Korean positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellites.