Russia&CIS

The President of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, met with senior executives from French aerospace company Thales Group in Switzerland on 20 January 2020 in order to discuss several areas of interest in high technology, according to various reports in the Armenian press.

Russia, Kazakhstan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to proceed with a trilateral agreement to modernise the 'Gagarin's Start' launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to a 16 January 2020 report in Azerbaijan's Trend News Agency citing Russian and Kazakh sources.

The lower house of the Kazakh parliament approved legislation in December 2019 that amends Kazakh-Russian space cooperation at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kyzylorda region of southwest Kazakhstan, as well as the return to Kazakhstan of four areas of land leased by Russia around the large launch complex.

AzerCosmos, the Azerbaijani satellite operator, reported revenues of U.S.$40.6 million for the period of January to November 2019, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2018, when the company generated revenues of just U.S.$25.6 million.

We are pleased to pass along the 5th PSSI Space Security Conference Summary Report that just were released. The gathering, entitled “Evolution of the Counterspace Threat and Strengthening of International Space Partnerships”, was convened in Prague on June 9-11, 2019 in partnership with Japan’s Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center (CSICE), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Secure World Foundation (SWF).

SpaceWatch.Global recently caught up with Andre Rypl, Chair of the 62nd session of the UN COPUOS, to get an update on the 21 Guidelines for the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities.

Azercosmos, Turkey's leading digital broadcasting platform Digiturk, and mobile phone operator Vodafone signed cooperation agreements on 27 December 2019.

Ukrainian and Russian press are reporting that Ukrainian aerospace giant and design office Yuzhnoye is planning to build four variants of its Mayak heavy lift space launch vehicle, subject to Western investment.

These personal reviews are being published during the holiday season. This is Ksenia Synkova of SpaceWatch.Global.

Azercosmos signed an agreement with the digital satellite services provider Azam TV on 24 December 2019 for the provision of Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) services to the country of Tanzania.