Government

Turkish defence contractor Rocketsan and the Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) have signed an agreement that intends to transform Turkey into a space launching state, as well as a satellite manufacturing hub, according to a 5 November 2018 report in Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah. According to a statement released …

During a visit to Vietnam by the French Prime Minister, Jean-Yves Le Gall, the President of the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), signed a number of agreements with Vietnamese counterparts covering the French-led Space Climate Observatory (SCO), STEM education, and maritime and oceanographic surveillance. “The Prime Minister’s official visit to …

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been ordered to pay Spacecom U.S.$10 million for the late delivery of the AMOS-6 communications satellite that ended up being destroyed in a launchpad explosion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 it was sitting upon in 2016. The announcement was made in a filing with the …

Japan launched its own satellite positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system called Michibiki  on Thursday, 1 November 2018, as part of an effort to generate new businesses worth nearly 5 trillion yen (U.S.$44.4 billion) by 2025, as companies such as SoftBank Group, Mitsubishi Electric, and Hitachi develop applications in automated …

PASCO, a Japanese provider of satellite-based geospatial information, has signed an agreement to distribute data and images acquired by the ALOS-2 Earth observation (EO) satellite which is owned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). As part of this agreement, PASCO will start selling a new InSAR Package service to …

The head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Morteza Barari, announced in early October 2018 that three Iranian-made satellites – Payam-e Amirkabir-1, Dousti, and Nahid-1 – have been built and are ready to be launched, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Morteza Berari made the announcement at a …

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) released its institutional charter on 29 October 2018 that will guide the agency in its efforts to develop Australian civil space capabilities and competencies, as well as establish a thriving space and satellite industrial base. “The charter provides a high-level strategic overview of the agency, …

The Russian government has stated that it will not allow OneWeb, the U.S. satellite communications start-up building a 900-satellite megaconstellation, to provide satellite broadband Internet in Russia, citing national security concerns that the company might provide access to an open Internet that is out Moscow’s control. This statement comes despite …

The Philippines’ Diwata 2 remote sensing satellite was successfully launched into orbit on board a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-IIA satellite launch vehicle from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre on Monday, 29 October 2018. Fortunato dela Peña, Secretary of the Filipino Department of Science and Technology (DOST), personally witnessed the launch …

The United States has accused Russia at the United Nations of developing a range of anti satellite (ASAT) weapons, to include air-launched missiles, lasers, and satellites capable of rendezvousing with their targets in orbit, despite Moscow’s attempts to introduce a proposed treaty that would ban such weapons. “The United States …