Russia&CIS

The last Russian satellite launch of 2018 took place on 27 December 2018 when a Soyuz 2-1A launch vehicle lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, lofting two Kanopus-V remote sensing satellites and twenty-six secondary payloads into orbit with the aid of a Fregat upper stage.

The last two launches of the Rokot satellite launch vehicle fitted with a Ukrainian-made control system will be carried out in 2019, after which the vehicle will be decommissioned, a source in the Russian space industry told Russian news outlet Sputnik on 18 December 2018.

GK Launch Services, a subsidiary of Glavkosmos, Lavochkin Association, and Astroscale Japan Inc. held a kick-off meeting in Moscow on 12 December 2018 under the agreement on launch services for the Astroscale End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) satellite.

The Government of India headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the agreement on cooperation in space research for peaceful purposes with Uzbekistan, according to a Trend News Agency report citing local Uzbek media.

Azerbaijan’s state space corporation, Azercosmos, will examine the economic and commercial feasibility of building additional Earth observation satellites in its approved 2019-2022 state programme for remote sensing, according to a report by the Trend News Agency.

Azerbaijan’s second communications satellite, Azerspace-2, will reach its intended Geostationary orbit - 45 degrees East longitude - in January or February 2019, according to the country’s state space corporation Azercosmos, reports Trend News Agency.

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos has been accused by a Russian journalist of spending "billions on space but kopecks" on the engineering talent required for the sustainable and long-term success of Russia's space ambitions.

Andrey Potapov is an alumnus of the economic faculty of the Moscow State University and a former employee of Scanex. He was also director general of a pioneering Russian satellite manufacturer Sputnix.

Azerbaijan and Iran have concluded negotiations on space cooperation, to include the Iranian use of Azerbaijani communications satellites and the joint development of a remote sensing satellite, according Azerbaijani media reports.

The Board of Directors of Russia’s Glavkosmos have elected on 6 December 2018 Dmitry Loskutov to be the company’s new Director General.