Government

Director-General Timo Pesonen on behalf of the European Commission signed a Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement with the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket has launched two U.S. military satellites into geosynchronous orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the fifth successful flight of the rocket. Intended to launch on Saturday, January 14, the mission was delayed for a day, eventually launching on Sunday, January 15.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released an Order adopting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s plan to establish a Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs. The reorganization will better support the needs of the growing satellite industry, the FCC said.

On the heels of Israel’s purported announcement of the development of its “space administration” Space Force, one cannot help but wonder if the emergence of Space Forces is yet another affront to the provisions of the legal framework that governs outer space.

Galactic Energy, a rocket startup in China, launched five satellites into orbit on Monday, January 9, improving the private company’s ambition to become the Chinese rival to SpaceX.

A new NASA radiometer is now in low Earth orbit, paving the way for future satellite constellations dedicated to measuring infrared energy radiating from Earth’s surface. With development happening at Leonardo DRS with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office, the SpaceX Transporter 6 launched the Multiband Uncooled Radiometer Imager (MURI) instrument on Tuesday, January 3, as one of several hosted payloads within Loft Orbital’s YAM5 washing machine-sized satellite.

Euroconsult has released the 9th edition of its annual space market overview to cover the past 12 months and forecast the next 10 years for the industry. The report charts highs that contributed to the continued growth of many aspects of the commercial sector, together with the ongoing challenges of the world geopolitical and world economic environment.

AXESS Networks and Es’hailSat have announced a Strategic Partnership Agreement to provide Teleport and VSAT services for multiple sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. AXESS Networks offers teleport and satellite communications services globally to customers in various industries, including oil & gas, mining, maritime, telco, corporate, government and NGOs. In the same vein, Es’hailSat operates two GEO satellites and a state-of-the-art teleport in Doha, from where it provides independent, high-quality, advanced satellite services in the region.

The Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) successfully launched a prototype into orbit atop SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission. The Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) will test harvesting solar power in space and then beaming the energy back to Earth, Caltech said.

Commercial satellite design, manufacture, launch, and data collection company, Sidus Space, has been selected by engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company, Bechtel Corporation, to manufacture cables for the NASA Mobile Launcher 2 (ML2) project, Sidus said.