Asia Pacific

An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its fiftieth flight (PSLV-C48), successfully launched RISAT-2BR1 along with nine commercial satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, on 11 December 2019.

Two University of South Australia (UniSA) startups travelled to Petwood (South-East of Adelaide) on Saturday, 7 December 2019, to launch a one-storey-high aerial monitoring balloon, in a testing phase that will lead to a rocket launch in 2020. Space robotics startup Lux and satellite developer ResearchSat are both participating in …

SpaceChain announced on 5 December 2019 that its blockchain hardware wallet technology is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the CRS-19 commercial resupply service mission. This is the first technology demonstration of blockchain hardware on the ISS, and it will …

Rocket Lab, a commercial space launch company, successfully completed its 10th launch on 6 December 2019 from its launch complex in New Zealand, placing seven small satellites in orbit as well as returning its Electron booster back to Earth.

The team from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala have completed the development of their first satellite under the KiboCUBE programme run by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

As it readies for its first satellite launch next week, Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific) announced on 6 December 2019 that it has closed credit facilities totalling U.S.$160 million with a group of financial institutions including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and GuarantCo.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Blaine Curcio, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ‘Satellites for Nations: The Dawn of a New Era - The Key to New Markets?’, originally published at WestEastSpace.com on 24 November 2019.

On India’s independence day, 15th August 2018, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi announced that by 2022, “some of our young boys and girls will unfurl the Tricolour in space”.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $50 million financing package on 2 December 2019 with Kacific Broadband Satellites International Limited (Kacific) to provide satellite-based, low cost, high-speed, wholesale broadband internet connections to countries in Asia and the Pacific, especially in remote areas of small island nations in the Pacific, and larger island nations like Indonesia and the Philippines.

On 3 December 2019 the Australian Space Agency (ASA) signed with French aerospace giant Thales Group an agreement to develop Australian space capabilities.