Asia Pacific

Singtel, Singapore’s leading telecommunications provider, has teamed up with KVH Industries to provide satellite-based broadband maritime connectivity for shipping and the maritime sector across the Asia-Pacific region.

Indonesia’s space agency, Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional (LAPAN), has announced that it intends to launch an indigenous space launch vehicle (SLV) by 2040 with the ability to insert a 1-ton satellite into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), according to SpaceTech Asia.

Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) is engaging in the emerging competition among other states such as South Australia to establish itself as Australia’s leading New Space hub by funding seven NSW space startups to attend the AusTrade Landing Pad last week.

Kleos Space, the Luxembourg-based New Space company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), has been busy since its successful IPO on 24 August 2018 that raised approximately U.S.$8 million.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a small launch vehicle that weighs no more than 100 tons that can loft a 500 kg satellite into a 500 km orbit. ISRO is currently earning about U.S.$40 million annually through launching small satellites for foreign customers, and aims to increase its revenue by using the small launch vehicle to serve the burgeoning small satellite market.

SpaceWatch.Global last spoke to Gernot Groemer, Founder and Administrative Director of the Austrian Space Forum last year when we covered the Forum’s work and activities on the Mars Analogue missions.

Thai and Chinese officials have agreed to mutual trade and investments in a number of sectors – to include satellite manufacturing and applications – across and between Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Sky and Space Global (SAS), the New Space narrowband satellite communications company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, has been awarded a Company of the Year award by Frost & Sullivan as the best global nanosatellite company of the year.

The Japanese government has issued the 2018 policy guidelines for national defence that emphasises the growing threats emanating from China, North Korea, and Russia in the cyberspace and space domains.

Now that the euphoria over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that India will launch its first Vyomanaut (derived from the Sanskrit word for space, or vyoma) into Earth orbit by 2022 has passed, the political contours of the announcement are beginning to take shape.