Asia Pacific

Air Chiefs and senior space officials from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States held a meeting at Headquarters Air Force Space Command to discuss the future of the Combined Space Operations (CSpO) initiative on 10 April 2019.

Astroscale Holdings Inc., the market-leader in developing a space debris removal service to secure long-term orbital sustainability, has announced the opening of a new office in Denver, Colorado (“Astroscale U.S.”), adding a strategic United States base to already established entities in Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

While SpaceIL's Beresheet lunar lander met with a tragic end on the Moon's surface, it has paved the way for a number of other private Moon missions that are currently in the works. Among these is Japan's ispace, and SpaceWatch.Global's Editor-in-Chief Helen Jameson spoke with Kyle Acierno about the company's plans.

Boeing and the Australian Space Agency have signed a Statement of Strategic Intent to help advance the agency’s goals to expand Australia’s domestic space industry.

Singapore-based SpaceChain has expanded its operations to the United Kingdom to leverage Europe's advanced space technologies and to drive economic development through SpaceChain's satellite infrastructure and blockchain technology.

U.S. small satellite launch company Rocket Lab has announced the next evolution of its mission services; the in-house designed and built Photon™ satellite platform.

The second China-Arab States BDS Cooperation Forum was held in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis on 1 April 2019 to discuss measures and initiatives that will increase the use of China's Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) in the Arab world with the aim of elevating cooperation in high-technology between China and the Middle East and North Africa.

On March 27, India announced it had successfully conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, called “Mission Shakti”. After the United States, Russia and China, India is now the fourth country in the world to have demonstrated this capability.

NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, has expressed his concern in the days after India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully carried out the country’s first anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test against an out-of-service Indian satellite orbiting the Earth at 300 kilometres altitude on Wednesday, 27 March 2019, at 11.16 am Indian Time

Telesat announced on 2 April 2019 that PT iForte Solusi Infotek (iForte), a leading provider of USO (Universal Service Obligation) VSAT services in Indonesia, has signed major contracts for Ku-band HTS and C-band capacity on Telesat’s new Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite.