Space

Sky and Space Global, the Australian New Space narrowband satellite communications company, are making significant inroads in the African and Brazilian communications markets by participating in the AfriCom conference in South Africa and signing MoU’s with two Brazilian telecommunications companies.

U.S. New Space launch provider Rocket Lab has closed a Series E financing round of U.S.$140 million. The funding round closed last month, prior to the launch of the successful mission ‘It’s Business Time,’ and was led by existing investor Future Fund, with strong participation from current investors including Greenspring Associates, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC (Data Collective), Promus Ventures and K1W1.

Uzbekistan is discussing the joint development, manufacture, and operation of a communications satellite with Russia and Kazakhstan, according to media reports in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Tell us about your career and the current job you are doing I had a fun career and got to do a lot of cool stuff and work with a lot of cool people. I had the opportunity to work on the Shuttle main engine before the first Shuttle flight as a summer student and ended my NASA career as Program Director on the Space Launch System and Orion at NASA Headquarters.

Morocco's Mohammed VI-B high-resolution Earth observation satellite is expected to be launched on an Arianespace launch vehicle from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana on 20 November 2018, on board an Arianespace Vega satellite launch vehicle, with the mission dubbed by Arianespace as Vega Flight VV13.

MzansiSat, a New Space satellite broadband company located in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is looking to launch and operate its own Geostationary orbit communications satellite, to be called MzansiSat-1, by 2022 in order to provide low-cost satellite broadband Internet across Africa in what its Chief Operating Officer, Victor Stephanopoli, calls a "patchy" telecommunications sector on the continent.

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO), China intends to promote satellite imagery sharing with other member states for applications such as urban planning, disaster monitoring and assessment, as well as resource management and surveying.

Australian New Space start-up Myriota, which focuses on providing satellite connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), is partnering with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to deploy marine buoys called drifters that are fitted with satellite-connected IoT sensors in order to track currents, sea surface water temperature, and barometric pressure of the ocean in real-time.

Thuraya Telecommunications Company, a subsidiary of the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), announced on 13 November 2018 that the world’s first satellite smartphone, the Thuraya X5-Touch, would be available for commercial distribution in less than a month.

IEC Telecom and two of its long-standing strategic partners, UAE's Yahsat and its subsidiary Thuraya, are offering new products, services, and connectivity services at the 2018 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).