Satellite Launch Business

According to Alexander Medvedev, deputy general director of the TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center, the inaugural launch of the Angara-A5M rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome is planned for 2025.

As part of a whole-of-government effort, the Japanese government is considering building and launching space-based Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites to better monitor space debris and anti-satellite threats against Japanese satellites, according to a report in Japan News.

Japanese company Canon Electronics has outlined its plan to become a turnkey space venture that builds and launches rockets from its own space launch site, and building and operating its own Earth observation satellites and selling the satellite imagery on the open market.

Pakistan has taken over control of its Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS)-1 and the PakTES-1A experimental satellite from Chinese operators just over a month after the two satellites were launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China.

According to Alexander Medvedev, the chief designer of launch vehicles, deputy general director of the TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center, and one of the ideologists of the Angara rocket, the Angara-A5B heavy-lift launch vehicle can be modified to be reusable, with landings performed using landing legs similar to those of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket’s reusable first stage.

China has offered Russia to work together on promising methane and hydrogen rocket engines, Igor Arbuzov, General Director of NPO Energomash, told RIA Novosti.

Japanese New Space satellite launch company Interstellar Technologies Inc. is developing the main engine for its Zero launch vehicle and expects to complete that development this year, with the aim of conducting the first engine test in early 2019.

Chinese New Space satellite launch company OneSpace Technology, China’s first private rocket producer, has raised a RMB300 million (U.S.$44 million) series B investment round that was led by CICC Jiatai Equity Funds, according to an official announcement made by the company.

Spire Global, the New Space company that provides meteorological, maritime, and aviation awareness data from low-Earth orbit, has selected Arianespace’s Vega launch vehicle to loft its LEMUR-2 Cubesats.

According Igor Arbuzov, General Director of NPO Energomash, the production of the engines for the Proton-M heavy-lift launch vehicle is to be ceased by the end of 2018. However, it is possible to resume production if there are new contracts for these launch vehicles.