by Kiran Mohan Vazhapully Artist’s impression of the Gateway and Orion. The Gateway is the next structure to be launched by the partners of the International Space Station. Image courtesy of NASA.Last month, based on a Reuters report, Chris Borgen wrote in Opinio Juris about the White House chalking out details of a United States (US) sponsored international framework dubbed “Artemis Accords”,  to facilitate commercial mining on the Moon. They are conceived as inter-agency bilateral agreements similar to the International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement (ISS-IGA).

The UAE’s space programmes, especially the successful launch of its Mars Mission, will give a fillip to Asia’s lead in fourth Industrial revolution and make the Emirates "a big stakeholder in the development of developing countries across the globe," a senior academic told Emirates News Agency, WAM.

Lunar services company, ispace, revealed the final design of its lunar lander that will be used in the first mission of the company’s “HAKUTO-R” program, a multinational commercial lunar exploration program.

This Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Latvia, builds on the successful results achieved under the previous frameworks of cooperation and enters into force for a duration of seven years. Comprising 18 Articles and two Annexes, it orchestrates the strengthening of Latvia’s relations with ESA.

The US National Space Council published a new document on 23rd July 2020 titled ‘'A New Era for Space Exploration and Development’. This is a particularly interesting document as it is not legally binding, a clear policy statement, nor one of the periodical space ‘strategy’ or review documents, yet it may be one of the more useful and revealing statements about a modern American vision for outer space in recent years.

The heavy-lift Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s fifth mission of 2020 is now complete following integration of its three passengers at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Space BD Inc., the leading space startup in Japan that provides access to space using the International Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” and rideshares on Japan’s flagship launch vehicle “H3”

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and The Strategist, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles. This is “Australia and the US in space—ready for lift-off?" by Malcolm Davis, originally published on 8 July 2020.

The ESPI Yearbook is an annual publication that provides a complete overview of all major developments and trends in the space sector over the year including policy, programmes, industry, economy, business and overall worldwide activity.

Space BD is a space startup in Japan offering access to space using the International Space Station’s Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo”, the largest single ISS module, as well as with rideshares on Japan’s flagship launch vehicle “H3”.