Asia Pacific

Equatorial Space Systems announced on 25 May 2020 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to use the facilities of Southern Launch Australia for its upcoming suborbital mission programme. The Singapore-based launcher company, notable for its innovative hybrid propulsion systems, revealed the Dorado sounding rocket, capable of delivering up …

Space BD Inc. has announced that the H-II Transfer Vehicle No.9 (HTV9) successfully launched from Tanegashima Space Station to the International Space Station via H-IIB launch vehicle. HTV9 is carrying a payload of Space BD’s customer, SATLANTIS MICROSAT S.L.’s Integrated Standard Imager for Microsatellites (iSIM). The launch occurred on 21 …

GuarantCo, with funding from the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) Technical Assistance, is providing a US$500,000 grant to support Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific) efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by distributing satellite communication systems. These systems will allow free connections of up to 1,000 rural health posts and …

Phase Four, makers of radio frequency (RF) plasma engines for next generation space platforms, announced on 18 May 2020 that it has inked an agreement with Marubeni Corporation as an exclusive representative of its Maxwell line of satellite engines in Japan, one of the world’s fastest-growing space economies. Phase Four …

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the third episode in our new podcast series, The Space Cafe Podcast. Episode 003 features special guest Daniel Porras, Space Security Fellow at UNIDIR – the United Nations Institute of Disarmament Research in Geneva talking about indicators of an arms race in space, Columbus, space …

SpaceWatch.Global wishes all of our Muslim friends and readers a Blessed Eid and our warm wishes to you and your families!  

SpaceChain Foundation announced on 19 May 2020 it has contracted and invested in Core Semiconductor, an innovator in provably secure computing platforms for all connected devices, to produce the world’s first open-source hardware platform capable of providing a downlink to mobile phones and small devices directly from satellites in orbit, …

By Yuka Koshino Japan’s establishment of the Space Domain Mission Unit, which is planned to become fully operational in 2023, reflects the country’s increasing reliance on space systems to meet its security needs. It could emerge as a key actor in the defence of space assets in the Indo-Pacific. In …

The Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and Ministry of Defense (MoD) stood up the country’s first Space Operations Squadron – the first component of Japan’s Space Domain Mission Unit (SDMU) – in a ceremony presided by the Japanese Minister of Defense Taro Kono on 18 May 2020. The Space Operations Squadron, …

By Steven Freeland, Western Sydney University, Australia, and David Kuan-Wei Chen, McGill University, Canada For over four months, we have been in the grip of the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2), which has spread to virtually every continent on Earth. Despite the best efforts of governments and people around the world, the …