Government

Uzbekistan is discussing the joint development, manufacture, and operation of a communications satellite with Russia and Kazakhstan, according to media reports in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This follows reports that the Central Asian state is also in advanced talks with French satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space regarding support for developing capacity …

Morocco’s Mohammed VI-B high-resolution Earth observation satellite is expected to be launched on an Arianespace launch vehicle from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana on 20 November 2018, on board an Arianespace Vega satellite launch vehicle, with the mission dubbed by Arianespace as Vega Flight VV13. If the launch …

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO), China intends to promote satellite imagery sharing with other member states for applications such as urban planning, disaster monitoring and assessment, as well as resource management and surveying. “We will construct the Data Sharing Service Cloud …

The Chinese Air Force – officially called the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) – intends to expand its presence into space as part of its plan to become a “world-class force,” China’s state-run media reported on 13 November 2018, quoting senior Chinese officers, and first reported outside of China …

According to the 21st edition of its report Satellites to be Built and Launched over the Next 10 Years, Euroconsult anticipates that 3,330 satellites with a mass over 50 kg will be launched on average each year by 2027 for government agencies and commercial organizations worldwide. This is a threefold …

South Korean government agencies and universities have five payloads on board the upcoming SpaceX Falcon-9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States. The launch is currently scheduled for 19 November 2018, and will loft approximately 60 satellites from numerous countries and companies. The South Korean payloads come …

Following revelations in September 2018 by French defence minister Florence Parly that Russian reconnaissance satellites had maneuvered close to the Athena-Fidus Franco-Italian communications satellite in 2017 in a suspected act of espionage, the French Joint Space Command and the Ministry of Defence are preparing a space defence strategy that will …

Russian scientists, with the support of the Russian government, intend to place a number of ground-based observatories in the Nenets Autonomous Region on Russia’s Northwest Arctic Ocean coast for the purposes of providing space situational awareness (SSA) of satellites and space debris in Polar orbits as the pass over the …

As part of significant defence reforms being proposed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia is considering the creation of a Cyber Security and Space Force, that if implemented, will operate under the command of the Ethiopian military. The proposed reforms also call for the creation of an Ethiopian naval base, …

China and Russia have signed a cooperative agreement on 7 November 2018 covering their respective global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), BeiDou and GLONASS. The agreement was one of a number of energy and trade deals signed by Chinese Premier Le Keqiang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a visit …