Asia Pacific

Australia’s Space Agency (ASA) will be located in Adelaide, reinforcing South Australia’s long-standing contribution to the nation’s space journey.

Inmarsat has entered into an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) to be the first commercial customer to place an order for the new H3 launch vehicle. The maiden flight of H3 is scheduled for 2020 with Inmarsat planning to deploy the new launch vehicle after 2022.

Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has announced that it would be extending its Earth observation capabilities by acquiring Australia’s first CubeSat designed to detect invisible infrared light.

India and Japan have scheduled their first annual bilateral space dialogue in March 2019, where they will discuss cooperation and coordination on a range of civil and national security space issues, ranging from space-based maritime domain awareness and satellite reconnaissance through to the harmonization of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems and space exploration, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.

Legislators in the Philippines Congress have passed key legislation that will establish the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA), placing the organisation in charge of developing, running, and promoting the Southeast Asian country's national space programme.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is making preparations to carry out its Mission 1 (M1) and subsequent Mission 2 (M2) CubeSat and small satellite demonstrations in cooperation with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.

Japanese New Space Earth observation company Axelspace Corporation has completed a Series B funding round raising approximately 2.58B JPY (U.S.$22.8 million).

Chinese New Space Internet of Things (IoT) satellite communications company Commsat had seven small satellites launched as a rideshare on board a Long March-2D launch vehicle together with two Earth observation satellites for Saudi Arabia from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on 7 December 2018.

China successfully launched its Chang'e 4 lunar probe on Saturday, 8 December 2018, as part of its overall goal to establish itself as a global space power and spread its strategic influence throughout Eurasia.

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