Russia&CIS

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. “We are currently holding negotiations on Iran’s use of satellites belonging to Azerbaijan. In addition, Iran has a satellite …

The Board of Directors of Russia’s Glavkosmos have elected on 6 December 2018 Dmitry Loskutov to be the company’s new Director General. Mr. Loskutov comes to Glavkosmos with a wealth of governmental and defence-diplomacy experience. Until 2004 he worked in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, engaged in …

Following a string of high-profile incidents, failures, and corruption scandals and allegations, Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, has hit back at its Russian and international critics in a bizarre claim that criticism of the struggling space programme is an “information attack” designed to discredit Roscosmos and its efforts at reforming …

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. (Firefly), a provider of economical, and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft and in-space services, have announced that they have been selected by NASA for the award of a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract. The principal purpose of NASA’s CLPS program is to acquire end-to-end commercial payload services …

The Russian military successfully launched three Strela-3M communications satellites on 30 November 2018 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northwest Russia, according to reports from TASS, the Russian state news agency. “On Friday, November 30, at 5:27 Moscow time, an operational crew of the Space Troops of the Russian Aerospace Forces …

Azerbaijan and Australia are reportedly in ongoing discussions regarding collaborative satellite projects, according to a report from Trend News Agency, an Azerbaijani news outlet. According to the report, Azerbaijan and Australia are in economic and technology cooperation talks on mining, information technologies, and aerospace industry. The president of the Azerbaijan …

The Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, has announced its intention to build a constellation of satellites called Marathon to serve the expanding Internet of Things (IoT) market, as part of its Sphere satellite system. The announcement comes amidst an audit into Roscosmos over missing billions of rubles, as well as …

MIURA-1, the suborbital rocket developed by PLD Space, will be launched from “El Arenosillo” Experimentation Center (CEDEA), of the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain’s national space agency, during the third quarter of 2019. This technological demonstrator, whose development began in 2011, is designed to provide scientific and commercial …

The Saint-Petersburg-based lab Astronomikon has grown out of a student nanosatellite project. Its founder and CEO Denis Malygin entered the space industry with a background in robotics engineering. He participated in the Tempus-CRIST international project and studied at TU Berlin. Following his return to Russia, Malygin assembled an engineering team …

Uzbekistan is discussing the joint development, manufacture, and operation of a communications satellite with Russia and Kazakhstan, according to media reports in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This follows reports that the Central Asian state is also in advanced talks with French satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space regarding support for developing capacity …