Space

The UAE Space Agency is participating in the high-level SpaceOps 2018 conference, hosted by the French space agency, to exchange detailed technical and mission data for the upcoming Emirates Mars Mission. Space Ops is a biannual international forum for discussing advanced and technical areas of space exploration. The 2018 event, hosted by the French Centre National d'études Spatiales (CNES), takes place 28 May - 1 June 2018 at the Palais du Pharo in Marseilles.

InfoStellar is an innovative Japanese start-up with a vision: to extend the Internet that we know on Earth into outer space by creating the largest space communications infrastructure in history. This vision is set to be achieved through a unique antenna-sharing platform and also a one-stop small satellite shop that aims to connect customers from all over the world to Japanese manufacturers, universities, and service providers.

The Thai Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to take on national security space missions, and incorporate military space concepts of operations and their associated threats and opportunities in its defence strategy, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures. According to Thai media reports, the MoD in Bangkok is considering options that include the leasing of an Earth observation satellite from a U.S.-based company and the introduction of space principles, operations, and concepts of operations throughout all Thai defence-related training and education in order to create a space savvy military.

China has issued an open invitation to all countries interested in participating in its planned orbital station in a bid to establish itself as a leading international space power and expand its influence. This step is especially significant at a time when NASA, the U.S. space agency, and its partners are trying to decide how long to maintain the International Space Station (ISS). The China Space Station is due to become operational as soon as 2022.

The South African Square Kilometer Array (SKA) has partnered with the Dutch optical telescope MeerLICHT to create the world's first combined radio and optical telescope – a kind of 'eyes and ears' approach to astronomy – that could provide huge advances in both astronomy and astrophysics.

The UAE’s American University of Sharjah (AUS) has created a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with an emphasis on space sciences. This degree programme will include internships at the UAE Space Agency and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, as well as a possible small satellite building initiative.

Israel’s Spacecom, the troubled operator of the AMOS fleet of communications satellites, has postponed its U.S.$112 million contract with Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build the AMOS-8 satellite. Instead, Spacecom has come to an interim agreement with SSL and has a 30 day extension to raise the necessary funds for the initial down payment that will see the contract reinstated and work begun on the satellite.

Mongolia and France signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 18 May 2018 in order to carry out space cooperation at the institutional level between the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) and the Mongolian communication and information technologies authority (ACTI). The MoU was signed by Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of …

U.S. based commercial space launch company Rocket Lab is getting ready for its first commercial launch, which is scheduled to take off from New Zealand in late June 2018. This U.S. spaceflight startup has scheduled new dates for its first commercial launch: a mission dubbed “It’s Business Time” which will launch via its small rocket, the Electron, between 23 June and 6 July 2018

It’s amazing to think that humanity is actually about to take its first true foray into space tourism. Achieving weightlessness is a reality through Zero Gravity flights, but now travelling around Moon and even a stay in a space hotel appears to be well within reach. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, SpaceWatch Global takes a look at just some of the developments in space tourism that could eventually see many of us foregoing our Earthly holiday for an experience that is truly out of this world.