Space

India's second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, will be attempted in mid-April 2019, a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official said on 11 January 2019. Chandrayaan-2 will comprise a lander and a lunar rover.

Inmarsat is set to move its European Aviation Network out of London as a result of the Brexit threat. The move, expected to happen before April, will see EAN operate out of Luxembourg but Inmarsat itself will remain headquartered in London.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited London and Paris as part of an effort to strengthen Tokyo's ties with Western intelligence in order to counter increasing Chinese military and espionage activities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Intelsat S.A., operator of the world’s first Globalized Network and leader in integrated satellite communications, announced that it has joined the Global System for Global Communications Association (GSMA - originally known as the Groupe Spécial Mobile), the organization representing mobile operators worldwide, to further strengthen the integration of satellite and terrestrial technologies and advance 5G deployments.

Greater numbers of British forces and their families stationed abroad, including Royal Navy ships at sea, will receive a range of popular British TV and radio programming from the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) via SES satellites in a new multi-year agreement announced today by SES.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is aiming for the first crewed Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission to take place in December 2021.

The role of commercial space in today’s national security environments is known well enough. There are useful policy debates to be had over what national security space systems a state should absolutely provide for to ensure sovereign decision making in war versus where commercial entities can step in.

Nanosatellite operator, Sky and Space Global (SAS), has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) that will strengthen its growth strategy on the African continent.

Newtec, a leader in the design, development and manufacture of equipment for satellite communications, announced on 9 January 2019 that its Newtec Dialog® VSAT multiservice platform has been selected by broadband satellite operator, Kacific, for its new High Throughput Satellite, Kacific-1, to significantly expand its broadband service delivery in underserved areas of South East Asia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) has completed the build of the platform for EUTELSAT QUANTUM, the world’s first geostationary telecommunications satellite that will be fully reconfigurable in orbit.