Government

A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced on 14 November 2019.

Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, announced on 13 November 2019 the launch of the Techstars Allied Space Accelerator. The accelerator, a virtual program, will run in partnership with the United States Air Force, the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Norwegian Space Agency and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.

The European Union's (EU) Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) defence technology initiative announced on 12 November 2019 its decision to cooperatively develop several military space projects designed to enhance the defence and security of EU member states.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “What Does ASEAN’s Evolving Approach to the South China Sea Issue Mean for Vietnam?”, originally published on 1 November 2019 in The Diplomat

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) has signed an agreement with Republic of the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) to provide a share of the tasking and data acquisition services from NovaSAR-1, the innovative small S-Band radar satellite launched into a 580km sun synchronous orbit in September 2018.

Six New Zealand research projects have received NZ$500,000 each to fund the development of innovative space technologies including satellite control systems and ocean and coastal monitoring satellites.

On Monday, 11 November 2019 at 9:56 a.m. EST, 14:56 UTC, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), the global community steward for Earth science data professionals, has announced Operational Readiness Levels (ORLs) to make Earth science data more trusted and to improve data-driven decision-making during disaster response and recovery.

On 6 November 2019, on the occasion of President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the People’s Republic of China, Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Zhang Kejian, Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), signed in the presence of Presidents Macron and Xi Jinping a joint statement covering two fields of investigation.

Viasat Inc. reports that its Multi-Mission Terminal (MMT), the AN/TSC-241, has started the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Skynet satellite communications (SATCOM) architecture assurance and certification process, which will authorize the terminal's operation on the Skynet X-band system as well as other government and commercial networks