Earth observation

Russia will launch the EgyptSat-A Earth observation satellite on a Soyuz-2.1B space launch vehicle on 27 December 2018, according to Russian press reports.

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) and Airbus Defence and Space have signed a statement of intent that commits the European satellite manufacturer to enhancing the capability and competitiveness of the Australian space and satellite industrial sector.

Arianespace has announced that it will launch THEOS-II, the very-high-resolution Earth observation optical satellite for Thailand, and KOMPSAT-7 for the Korean Aerspace Research Institute (KARI), in two separate launches on the new Arianespace Vega-C launch vehicle in 2021.

China's Institute of Aerospace Information Research has helped ten countries install virtual ground stations in order to receive remote sensing data, it was announced last week.

The governments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are considering the joint construction and operation of a communications satellite, and are also looking at proposing a Central Asian Earth observation satellite constellation consisting of five satellites.

e-GEOS, a company jointly owned by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Telespazio, has won new contracts in Indonesia and Japan to provide satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence from the COSMO-SkyMed Earth observation satellite constellation for maritime domain awareness and other applications.

Planet, the New Space commercial Earth observation company that operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites, and Orbital Insight, a leading company specialising in geospatial analytics, announced on 19 September 2018 a multi-year contract for Orbital Insight to source daily, global satellite imagery from Planet. The contract is an expansion of their previous imagery-sharing agreement.

Azerbaijan's national space agency, AzerCosmos, will soon start selling satellite imagery taken by its AzerSky Earth observation satellite, as well as imagery taken by the Pléiades-1A and 1B satellites, according to a source in AzerCosmos reported by Azerbaijani news outlet Trend.

Kleos Space, the Luxembourg-based New Space geolocation company that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), has selected Rocket Lab to launch its first satellites in 2019.

Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, is partnering with Airbus Defence and Space and The Forest Trust (FTF) to use its Starling Earth observation platform to monitor the entirety of its global supply chains for palm oil as part of the Swiss company's commitment to reduce its global impact on deforestation.