Space

On 6 November 2019, on the occasion of President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the People’s Republic of China, Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Zhang Kejian, Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), signed in the presence of Presidents Macron and Xi Jinping a joint statement covering two fields of investigation.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has shipped a 16kg Target satellite for Astroscale's End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) mission to Tokyo, where it will be bolted to the Chaser satellite for environmental testing ahead of launch in 2020.

Viasat Inc. reports that its Multi-Mission Terminal (MMT), the AN/TSC-241, has started the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Skynet satellite communications (SATCOM) architecture assurance and certification process, which will authorize the terminal's operation on the Skynet X-band system as well as other government and commercial networks

The UK Space Agency will award £7.35 million to Virgin Orbit UK Limited, the UK branch of U.S. launch operator Virgin Orbit, to enable horizontal launch of small satellites at Cornwall Airport Newquay, it was confirmed on 5 November 2019.

ICEYE, the global leader in small satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology, has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RS Metrics to jointly offer to the commodities market the world’s first global SAR-based iron ore inventories dataset with up to daily updates.

Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has announced that its next mission will launch multiple microsatellites in a rideshare mission representing five different countries.

The New Zealand Government announced on 7 November 2019 it would contribute NZ$26 million towards MethaneSAT, a state-of-the-art satellite designed to detect global methane emissions with unprecedented accuracy.

In this article, Simon Drake, MD of Space Ventures Investors, CEO of Space Commodities Exchange, and organiser of Space Resources Community Voice, explores the reasons why space really has to rise to the top of politicians' lists of priorities and why it's down to us to do something about it. 

This is “ Russia-China Strategic Alliance Gets a New Boost with Missile Early Warning System?”, originally published 28 October 2019 at The Diplomat.

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