Asia Pacific

Nano-satellite mission integrator NanoAvionics received a contract to build a 12U nano-satellite bus for the Singaporean research mission Cathode-Less Micro Propulsion Satellite (CaLeMPSat). Developed by SpaceSATS, Plasma Innovation Labs (PILS) and the Plasma Source and Application Center (PSAC) at the National Institute of Education (an autonomous institute of Nanyang Technological University), CaLeMPSat will test miniature Hall effect thrusters (HETs) that operate at power classes never before achieved.

The Kacific-1 communications satellite, built by Boeing, has arrived at SpaceX facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will be launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket to geostationary orbit.

A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced on 14 November 2019.

Myriota, global leader in nanosatellite Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, has entered into a partnership deal with global manufacturer Motherson to produce its Myriota Module; a cutting edge, low powered device that securely transfers data to the Myriota Network of satellites from anywhere on the planet.

The space age has gone through two paradigm shifts since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. Until the early 1990s, ‘Space 1.0’ was the province of government-run, taxpayer-funded space programs. Civil space agencies such as NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos and the European Space Agency, along with military and major aerospace prime contractors, were the main players. Then a paradigm shift to ‘Space 2.0’ got underway when the commercial space sector entered the global market and began to  achieve dominance.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “What Does ASEAN’s Evolving Approach to the South China Sea Issue Mean for Vietnam?”, originally published on 1 November 2019 in The Diplomat

On 4th November 2019 the Austrian Space Forum´s (OeWF) new analog astronaut class of 2019 concluded their challenging training at a formal ceremony at the London Institute of Physics.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) has signed an agreement with Republic of the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) to provide a share of the tasking and data acquisition services from NovaSAR-1, the innovative small S-Band radar satellite launched into a 580km sun synchronous orbit in September 2018.

Six New Zealand research projects have received NZ$500,000 each to fund the development of innovative space technologies including satellite control systems and ocean and coastal monitoring satellites.

On 6 November 2019, on the occasion of President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the People’s Republic of China, Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Zhang Kejian, Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), signed in the presence of Presidents Macron and Xi Jinping a joint statement covering two fields of investigation.