Russia&CIS

Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, met for a status check on the development of the two nations’ cooperation in space. The meeting was hosted by the French ambassador to Russia, Pierre Levy, at the …

One of the more notable space stories of the past week is that of two Russian satellites allegedly ‘stalking’ a KH-11 reconnaissance satellite operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Given heightened geopolitical tensions between great powers and the increasing occurrence of Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) in Earth orbit, SpaceWatch.Global …

The Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) has started the planned training programme of Indian astronaut candidates under the contract between Glavkosmos, JSC (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) and the Human Spaceflight Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). After a thorough selection process, the …

The United States is alleging that two Russian satellites are stalking a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) reconnaissance satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and has formally complained about the matter to the Russian government according to numerous press reports. According to the United States, a Russian geodetic satellite called Cosmos-2542 …

Azerbaijani satellite operator Azercosmos and Infostellar, the Japanese Ground Segment as a Service provider, signed an agreement to enable Infostellar customers access to their satellite constellations from the Azercosmos Ground Station (AGS), located in the Absheron peninsula. The agreement was announced on 6 February 2020. AGS’ location is uniquely positioned …

Global communications company OneWeb announced its successful launch of 34 satellites aboard a Soyuz launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites were launched on 7 February 2020. They separated from the rocket and were dispensed in nine batches over a period of several hours. It is the …

The first European device to land on the Moon this decade will be a drill and sample analysis package, and the teams behind it are one step closer to flight as part of Russia’s Luna-27 mission. The main goal of the Luna-27 lander is to study the composition of the …

AzerCosmos, the state space company of Azerbaijan, reports that it generated revenues of U.S.$43.4 million from the export of its satellite communications and Earth observation services in the calendar year of 2019, a 70 percent increase over its exports in 2018. In 2018 AzerCosmos generated only U.S.$25.6 million in export …

Kazakhstan has revealed that it intends to stand up and establish its own satellite manufacturing capabilities and industry with the aim of being able to build and launch its own communications and Earth observation satellites, as well as scientific and technological testbed spacecraft. According to an unnamed official from the …

OneWeb, the UK-headquartered global satellite communications company, is scheduled to launch its second batch of 34 satellites on 6-7 February 2020 on board a Soyuz 2.1B satellite launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This marks the start of OneWeb’s regular launch campaign for 2020, which will grow its …