Asia Pacific

Sky and Space Global, the Australian New Space narrowband satellite communications company, are making significant inroads in the African and Brazilian communications markets by participating in the AfriCom conference in South Africa and signing MoU’s with two Brazilian telecommunications companies. The AfricaCom conference, held in Cape Town, was attended by …

U.S. New Space launch provider Rocket Lab has closed a Series E financing round of U.S.$140 million. The funding round closed last month, prior to the launch of the successful mission ‘It’s Business Time,’ and was led by existing investor Future Fund, with strong participation from current investors including Greenspring …

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO), China intends to promote satellite imagery sharing with other member states for applications such as urban planning, disaster monitoring and assessment, as well as resource management and surveying. “We will construct the Data Sharing Service Cloud …

Australian New Space start-up Myriota, which focuses on providing satellite connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), is partnering with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to deploy marine buoys called drifters that are fitted with satellite-connected IoT sensors in order to track currents, sea surface water temperature, and …

DigitalGlobe, a Maxar Technologies subsidiary company, announced on 9 November 2018 that it has mapped the entire continent of Australia at a unprecedented level of detail using the cutting-edge techniques of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and crowdsourcing. DigitalGlobe produced data layers for PSMA Australia to create Geoscape, a commercial location …

The Chinese Air Force – officially called the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) – intends to expand its presence into space as part of its plan to become a “world-class force,” China’s state-run media reported on 13 November 2018, quoting senior Chinese officers, and first reported outside of China …

Bangladesh has been given full control of its Bangabandhu-1 communications satellite after a handover ceremony where the satellite’s French manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, provided the ‘Transfer of Title’ documents to Bangladeshi officials. “The achievement and pride is more important than what financial gains we can derive from the satellite,” said …

South Korean government agencies and universities have five payloads on board the upcoming SpaceX Falcon-9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States. The launch is currently scheduled for 19 November 2018, and will loft approximately 60 satellites from numerous countries and companies. The South Korean payloads come …

New Zealand’s Centre for Space Science Technology (CSST) announced on 12 November 2018 their role in facilitating their first international space mission partnership, as a calibration and validation (cal/val) partner for the NASA ECOSTRESS mission. ECOSTRESS is a scientific mission that will measure the temperature of plants and use that …

Fleet Space Technologies’ first two satellites, Proxima I and II, were launched on 11 November 2018 on-board Rocket Lab’s manifest, It’s Business Time. This launch marks Australia’s first ever commercial CubeSats in orbit. The launch of the two CubeSats at Launch Complex-1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula represent a huge …