Earth observation

Roscosmos head, Dmitry Rogozin has announced that Russia will construct Sovereign's Eye ('Gosudarevo Oko'), a new constellation of remote sensing satellites that will enable them to identify any changes that are happening on Earth.

The successful launch of the Vietnamese MicroDragon Earth observation satellite took place on 18 January 2019 from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.

Monday 14 January in Dakar, Mary Teuw Niane, Senegal’s Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Jean-Pascal Le Franc, CNES’s Director of Programming, International and Quality, signed an agreement to step up cooperation between France and Senegal in space.

Days after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defiantly declared that Tehran will launch several satellites using indigenous launch vehicles over "the coming weeks," Iran followed through on its promise by attempting to launch its Payam-e Amirabir-1 Earth observation microsatellite on 15 January 2019, using a Simorgh satellite launch vehicle. The launch ended in failure when the third stage of the Simorgh SLV failed to put the satellite into its intended orbit.

Satellogic, the world’s first vertically integrated geospatial analytics company, announced on 15 January 2018 a Multiple Launch Services Agreement (MLA) with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). CGWIC will launch 90 of Satellogic’s spacecraft from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.

SIAP, the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food - part of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) - has signed a declaration of intent with the UK Space Agency to provide historic, statistical and satellite data to support Rezatec's development of a crop yield optimisation tool for Mexican farmers and other supply chain stakeholders.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck a defiant note on 11 January 2019 when he countered the U.S. threat of consequences should his government carry out the launch of two satellites using an Iranian satellite launch vehicle.

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.

How far have we come in achieving the UN's sustainable development goals that we are committed to nationally and internationally? Yes, it can be difficult to make a global assessment of poverty and poor economic conditions, but with an eye in the sky, researchers are able to give us a very good hint of the living conditions of populations in the world's poor countries.

Maxar Technologies Inc., a global technology innovator powering the new space economy, today reported that its WorldView-4 satellite experienced a failure in its control moment gyros (CMGs), preventing the satellite from collecting imagery due to the loss of an axis of stability.