Space

Spacebel and Wuudis Solutions (Wuudis) have signed a business agreement in Liège, Belgium on the distribution of Wuudis services to forestry users of the EO Regions! business platform and the commercialisation of Spacebel’s earth observation (EO) forest products on the Wuudis electronic platform. The aim is to strengthen their common offer in the field of forestry services worldwide.

Inmarsat is to be acquired by a private equity consortium in a U.S.$6 billion deal. The news comes after Echostar made a bid for the mobile satellite communications company just last year and after interest was also shown by Eutelsat and SoftBank.

Dr. Mohammed Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, and George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company (TSC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that outlines cooperation across a range of areas including plans to bring Virgin Galactic spaceflights to the UAE for education, science and technology research, as well as potential space tourism flights in the future.

Pakistan’s space agency, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), is believed to be in talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on developing an agenda for possible space cooperation, according to a senior SUPARCO official quoted in the UAE newspaper Khaleej Times.

On its third launch of the year, Arianespace has successfully orbited the PRISMA Earth observation satellite on behalf of the ASI Italian space agency, within the scope of a contract with OHB Italia.

According to Joseph Ibeh of Space in Africa, the Government of Senegal is set to grow the nation’s capability in the development of small satellites and space applications following a recommendation resulting from national consultations on the future of higher education in the prominent West African country.

A delegation from the French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) attended the third Global Space Congress (GSC) held in Abu Dhabi from 19 to 21 March 2019, organized by the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) under the high patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Dubai.

Kazakhstan proposed an Earth observation satellite programme to the official governmental delegations of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan at a meeting of the first Central Asian Economic Forum at Uzexpocenter, according to a Trend News Agency report via Uzbek media.

The maiden flight of Ariane 6 will see the new vehicle carrying OneWeb satellites that will build out the company’s new global, high-speed, low latency satellite-based network designed to address the most demanding global connectivity challenges worldwide. Ariane 6 will be available to OneWeb from the second half of 2020 …

To enhance the cooperation strategy with different government organisations in the region, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, has signed a cooperation, information and data-sharing agreement with Bahrain's National Space Science Agency, NSSA, for the application of satellite images and space research sciences.