Government

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France have entered into an executive programme space agreement signed in France during the visit to Paris by Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The executive programme agreement was signed by Prince Turki Bin Saud Bin Mohammed Al …

China has opened its first overseas centre to promote its Beidou satellite navigation system (BDS) in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, on 10 April 2018. The China-Arab States BDS/GNSS Centre has been created as a pilot programme between China and the Arab Information and Communication Technology Organization (AICTO), also …

SpaceWatch.Global is a proud partner of the Secure World Foundation, and a greateful recipient of SWF support. The SWF published a new report on 11 April 2018 titled Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment that provides an exhaustive, comprehensive, incisive, and useful open source guide to global counterspace capabilities and developments, as …

A Japanese military satellite payload, DSN-1, a dedicated military communications payload for the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD), was successfully launched into orbit on-board a SKY Perfect JSAT Superbird-8 communications satellite by Arianespace on 5 April 2018. DSN-1/Superbird-8 is the 19th satellite launched by Arianespace for SKY Perfect JSAT. SKY …

South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD), an agency of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), has said that it does not rule out finding another contractor to lead the South Korean reconnaissance satellite programme after current contractor, LIG Nex1, is reported to want to lower the requirement standards for …

The U.S. military’s Africa Command (USAFRICOM) has contracted with SES-owned O3B to provide commercial satellite communications to better support its widespread operations across the African continent. SES Government Solutions will provide USAFRICOM with high throughput, low-latency managed satellite communications services in the areas of their operations. It is described as …

Vietnam has formally joined the Japanese-led Asian Microsatellite Consortium (AMC) with the completion of its MicroDragon microsatellite, a move that will help the Southeast Asian country develop the necessary technologies and human capacities to design and produce further microsatellites, the Vietnam Space Center (VNSC) announced on 9 April 2018. The …

The Russian Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defence Minister of Russia, General Valeriy Gerasimov, gave a speech on his conception of future warfare to the Military Academy of the General Staff on 24 March 2018, in which the military uses of space features prominently. The speech, widely …

Patrick Nyirishema, the Director-General of the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), told a workshop on space regulations in Kigali – the capital city of Rwanda – that the small African country is looking at developing its own small communications satellite, and is also mulling the possibility of proposing a regional …

New discussions between the UAE and South Korea underscore their deep strategic cooperation in space in what has become an enduring collaboration between the two emerging spacepowers. The UAE Space Agency, led by Dr. Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director-General, welcomed Mi-Ock Mun, Advisor to the President for Science and …