Policy and Law

On March 27, India announced it had successfully conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, called “Mission Shakti”. After the United States, Russia and China, India is now the fourth country in the world to have demonstrated this capability.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has set up a dedicated unit to work on the standardised nanosatellites called 'CubeSats', teaming up with European companies to develop low-cost technology-testing missions.

ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, David Parker, and Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, signed a Statement of Intent to coordinate joint science research about the Moon and identify opportunities for lunar mission cooperation.

The UAE's national airline Etihad Airways has successfully implemented the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System, GADSS, recommendations for flight tracking ahead of the General Civil Aviation Authority’s, GCAA’s, proposed deadline of 1 June 2019.

By Blaine Curcio and Tianyi Lan China’s recently-rising space industry has caught a huge number of headlines and generated much buzz, including several articles written for this column. For good reason, this has taken many headlines. But a different type of space-related industry has seen Chinese presence abroad for some time—that is, the satellite broadcast industry.

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully carried out the country's first anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test against an out-of-service Indian satellite orbiting the Earth at 300 kilometres altitude on Wednesday, 27 March 2019, at 11.16 am Indian Time.

On the occasion of the state visit to France of the President of the People’s Republic of China, the French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) have stepped up their cooperation in the fields of planetary exploration and climate action. Space was already central to discussions between the two nations in January last year during the state visit to China of President Emmanuel Macron, a few months before the launch of the French-Chinese CFOSat oceanography satellite, the cornerstone of this partnership.

Argos is the only global satellite-based data collection and location system of its kind dedicated to studying and preserving the environment. Created in 1978 on the initiative of the French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is today operated by CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellite), a subsidiary of CNES. Since Argos entered service, three generations of instruments have succeeded one another. Eumetsat and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) joined the programme in 1997 and 2007 respectively.

Dr. Mohammed Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, and George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company (TSC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that outlines cooperation across a range of areas including plans to bring Virgin Galactic spaceflights to the UAE for education, science and technology research, as well as potential space tourism flights in the future.

Pakistan’s space agency, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), is believed to be in talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on developing an agenda for possible space cooperation, according to a senior SUPARCO official quoted in the UAE newspaper Khaleej Times.