Satellite

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.

Thaicom Public Company Limited (THCOM), Thailand’s first satellite operator, reported its operating results for the third quarter of 2018, posting a consolidated net profit of Baht 104 million (approximately U.S.$3.15 million), improved by 59.6% from Q3/2017, due mainly to the decrease of depreciation expense through the satellite assets impairment recognized in Q4/2017, and the decrease of selling and administration expenses.

Telesat has announced that its new Telstar 18 VANTAGE high throughput satellite (HTS) is fully operational at 138 degrees East and has entered commercial service. Telstar 18 VANTAGE was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 10 September 2018 and will serve growing demand for mobility, enterprise, and telecom services across the Asia-Pacific region.

Israeli satellite communications equipment manufacturer Gilat has won a contract to supply the ground segment network for China SatCom and its currently operational CHINASAT-16 (CS-16) and CHINASAT-18 (CS-18), expected to be launched in mid-2019, as part of China Satcom's ongoing effort to provide High-Throughput Ka-Band coverage throughout China for satellite broadband applications.

Türksat has made headway in the adaptation of cutting-edge broadcasting technologies by conducting an Ultra HD 8K (Super High-Vision) test broadcast - currently the state-of-art in broadcasting technology - through the Türksat-4B communication satellite located at its 50 degrees East Geostationary orbital (GEO) location.

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 driving, farming, and other sectors that will use the Michibiki system.

Ethiopian scientists and engineers are building a small Earth observation satellite in cooperation with and with funding from China, which will be launched from China in 2019, according to a report in The East African newspaper. This announcement is the culmination of much effort to bring Ethiopian space ambitions to reality.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have re-elected Houlin Zhao of China as ITU Secretary-General during the Union's 20th Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-18) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Following the launch failure of LandSpace's Zhuque-1 satellite launch vehicle on 27 October 2018, the Chinese New Space launch company has publicly released its preliminary findings as to why its rocket failed 402 seconds after launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China.

U.S. New Space orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has confirmed the launch window for the upcoming ‘It’s Business Time’ mission. The nine-day launch window will open from 11 to 19 November 2018 (NZDT), with daily launch opportunities between 16:00 – 20:00 NZDT (03:00 – 07:00 UTC).