Region

The Sultanate of Oman’s Space Communication Technologies LLC (SCT) issued on 3 June 2020 an invitation for consultancy bids to help the company determine the requirements for Oman’s first communications satellite.

Momentus, provider of in-space transportation services for satellites, and OrbAstro, a UK company focused on developing the technology to enable tiny satellites to operate in large flocks, announced on 4 June 2020 a launch contract to fly a 3U to SSO onboard the SpaceX Dedicated rideshare mission in 2021.

The heads of the space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet on 9 June 2020 via video conference in order to discuss cooperation on lunar exploration and the International Space Station (ISS).

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc., and a leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies,  has introduced the ST100, an innovative, embeddable, one-way satellite transmitter ready for rapid product development and manufacturing in the global marketplace.

The COVID 19 pandemic has ripped apart all sectors of the world’s societal fabric and rendered economies to a state of paralysis. Multilateral space diplomacy has not been immune to this chaos.

In this week's Space Cafe Web Talk Dr. Raji Rajagopalan discussed how India’s approach to outer space has changed over the last decade and how it is now driven increasingly by national security concerns.

In separate media appearances last week, Russian and Chinese diplomatic and military officials have criticised US – and allied – military space programmes and ambitions.

Astroscale U.S. Inc., the US unit of Astroscale Holdings Inc., a market leader in securing long-term orbital sustainability, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property and other assets and to hire certain members of the staff of Effective Space Solutions R&D Ltd. (ESS), an Israeli satellite life-extension and servicing company.

NASA has selected Astrobotic for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to continue its development of UltraNav, a low-cost, autonomous, visual navigation system for spacecraft. The system has wide-ranging applications, from the servicing of Earth satellites to journeys to challenging space destinations such as the lunar poles or Martian mountains.

Chinese officials have unveiled details of, and launch timeline for, its Tiangong space station now that the Long March 5B launch vehicle has been successfully launched and China’s crewed capsule has been tested.