Earth observation

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had launched a military satellite on the morning (Iranian time) of 22 April 2020 on board a previously unknown satellite launch vehicle the IRGC calls Qassed.

The Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) announced on 20 April 2020 that it had recently signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the development and manufacture of the thermal infrared instrument for the TRISHNA satellite.

A free app that helps people observe social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus is about to launch.Devised by Lanterne, a UK startup company supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), "Crowdless" uses satellite data and artificial intelligence technologies to identify where people are congregating anywhere in the world.

Nanosatellite manufacturer and mission integrator NanoAvionics, together with the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) and students from the Polytechnic University of Atlacomulco will develop the first nanosatellite for the State of Mexico, (one of most important states of the country), the AtlaCom-1.

PredaSAR, which is building and will operate the world’s largest and most advanced commercially operated Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation, announced the appointment of Col Michael Moran, USAF (Ret.) as Chief Operating Officer and Eric Truitt as Chief Solutions Officer, effective 15 April 2020.

On 15 April 2020, as part of their continuing efforts to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Axelspace Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan Space Systems (“J-spacesystems”) to promote the use of satellite data in the field of capacity building and human resource developme

Spire Global, a global data service provider and leader in AIS data solutions and weather forecasting, and VesselBot, a leading AI and Big Data technology company with deep shipping domain expertise, announced a new partnership to co-develop AI-enabled digital products for the maritime industry.

AAC Clyde Space announced on 16 April 2020 that it has won an additional $US250,000 (2.5 MSEK) order from Loft Orbital for power systems for two satellites.

This essay was originally published by the Eurasia Daily Monitor of  The Jamestown Foundation on 8 April 2020, and is republished here with their kind permission. The original essay can be found here.

Belarus and Russia have signed an agreement to jointly build a constellation of eight high-resolution Earth observation satellites, according to Belarusian and Russian news media sources.