Asia Pacific

Insurance company Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI), a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, has reached an agreement with global lunar resource development company ispace, to provide the world's first Lunar Insurance policy covering risks arising from ispace's Mission 1, ispace said.

Skyroot, India's space start-up, has launched India's first private sector rocket, Vikram-S, on a sub-orbital flight from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Dubbed the Prarambh mission, the 6-meter rocket launched at 11:30 IST and became a successful mission upon crossing 50 km altitude.

Synspective, a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data and solutions provider, has announced a new partnership for SAR-based analysis with Geo Climate Risk  Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (GCRS), a solution provider, consultancy, and advisory services firm. The SAR-based analysis is for the critical infrastructure and mining industries in India and South Asia. 

Uganda and Zimbabwe have launched their respective first satellites, on November 7 2022, onto the International Space Station for subsequent deployment into orbit at a later date. The satellites, PearlAfricaSat-1 and ZimSat-1, were launched at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Northrop Grumman (NG-18 Cygnus) commercial cargo resupply services to the ISS).

Aerospace company Airbus’ HAPS Connectivity (High Altitude Platform Station) Business has signed a Letter of Intent with Japanese Space Compass Corporation to cooperate on servicing the Japanese market with mobile connectivity and Earth observation services from the Stratosphere with Airbus’ Zephyr HAPS platform, the company said.

Japan-based Global lunar exploration company ispace, has received a license from the Japanese government to conduct business activity on the Moon as part of its first lunar mission, the company said. The approval is the first granted under Japan’s Act on the Promotion of Business Activities for the Exploration and Development of Space Resources (Space Resources Act). 

OneWeb CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal has announced that it will become ready for service in the second half of 2023 as it will complete the launch of its constellations by March 2023. Sunil made this announcement at the ongoing Connecting the World from the Skies forum, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Saudi Arabia Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST). 

Fleet Space Technologies has announced a major new contract with Core Lithium. The 12-month agreement was signed on October 12 by Fleet Space co-founder & CEO Flavia Tata Nardini and Gareth Manderson, CEO of Core Lithium.

Black Ops returns with a mini-series fully dedicated to the Indo-Pacific and global geopolitical Space picture. Protagonist of the mini-series will be Dr. Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and Great Power Politics. In the first episode of six, Namrata will discuss with SpaceWatch.Global Editor in Chief Emma Gatti the values, interests and cultures of the U.S., China, Russia, India, Japan, so to explain their investment in space capabilities.

The Australian Government has announced its commitment never to conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti‑satellite missile testing, consistent with its role as a responsible actor in space. When a party performs such tests, these tests generate large amounts of debris that remain in space for years. The debris subsequently threatens satellites and other space objects, risking the long-term sustainability of human activity in space.