Asia Pacific

By Dr. Malcolm Davis There’s been great interest about the establishment of a “United States Space Force” by the Trump Administration. President Trump began promoting the concept of a sixth and fully independent military force for space since early 2018, and the actual space force was formalised under a Congressional …

The University of South Australia’s Innovation and Collaboration Centre (ICC) is now accepting applications for its 2020 Venture Catalyst Space programme. As Australia’s first space incubator, the programme forms part of the state government’s AUS$4 million (U.S.$2.7 million) Space Innovation Fund which is delivered by global partners including the South …

More than 30 representatives from the UK space industry, universities and government—supported by the UK Space Agency—are visiting Singapore this week to explore new partnerships and opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia’s largest space and technology convention, the Global Space and Technology Convention (GSTC) is a cornerstone of the space industry in Asia. Organised by Singapore Space and Technology Limited (SSTL), the Convention is among the most comprehensive gathering of space agencies, industry leaders and future players, in Asia.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the State of New South Wales, Australia, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on future space activities. This agreement sets up a framework for cooperation on space-related activities in areas including space science and space policy and law.

The first satellite of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF), named Napa-1, is expected to be launched on board an Arianespace Vega satellite launch vehicle on 24 March 2020.

Rocket Lab, the commercial small satellite launch company, successfully launched a small classified payload into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on 31 January 2020.

2020 promises to be a big year in space, but not only for the well-known events you keep on hearing about, such as the expected crewed launches from U.S. soil on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner. In the background, thousands of new space entrepreneurs are executing on business plans that take advantage of the tremendous decrease of the costs of accessing space and operating in it. Many of these entrepreneurs have important milestones in 2020.

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall was the guest of honour at the international Human Spaceflight Symposium organized in Bangalore, India, on 24 January 2020 by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will bolster the scale and scope of its geospatial monitoring toolkit thanks to collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will expand the capacity of FAO's accessible platforms for forestry and land-use assessments.