Space

As climate change makes the Arctic region, also known as the High North, more navigable for conventional shipping and open to natural resource exploitation, so geopolitical competition between Arctic countries such as Canada, Russia, United States, and Scandinavian countries such as Norway intensifies.

The first of 320 satellites in the Chinese Hongyan low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites communications mega-constellation is expected to be launched by the end of 2018 on board a Long March-2D satellite launch vehicle, according to reporting by Andrew Jones in the GBTimes.

According to Euroconsult's latest report, China Space Industry 2018, the China space value chain had an estimated size of more than U.S.$16 billion in 2017, with the downstream market accounting for just over 85%. Satellite Navigation, one of the key satellite applications in China, was the main revenue generator in 2017, ahead of Satellite Communications and Earth Observation.

China launched two BeiDou-3 satellites on 19 November 2018, and in doing so it can provide basic global satellite positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services by the end of 2018. The basic service will first be offered to countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and offered globally at a later date.

During his recent visit to China, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Chinese counterparts signed a number of agreements that commit both countries to space, science, and technology cooperation.

Bahrain is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on space cooperation with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in early 2019, in order to send Bahraini engineers to India for training in satellite technologies and manufacturing. The MoU, once signed, will further establish ISRO as a major player in Gulf Arab space ambitions.

XpressSAR Inc. of Arlington, Virginia and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to purchase from IAI a constellation of up to four TecSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites along with associated support services for launch, in-orbit testing, commissioning, and establishing ground operations to control the constellation.

Arianespace has successfully launched the MOHAMMED VI-B Earth observation satellite, developed for the Kingdom of Morocco by a consortium comprising Thales Alenia Space as system prime contractor and Airbus as co-prime. Arianespace’s ninth launch of the year, and the second using Vega in 2018, took place on Tuesday, November 20, …

The Japanese government will establish a command centre within the Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to monitor space debris and traffic in Earth orbit as well as to carry out surveillance on foreign satellites as they orbit over Japanese territory.

Chinese New Space satellite launch company LandSpace Technology announced on 20 November 2018 that it has received 300 million Yuan (U.S.$43 million) in a just-completed Series B funding round, according to Chinese news platform Weixin.