Policy and Law

The Turkish minister for Science, Industry, and Technology, Mustafa Varank, said on 7 August 2018 that the Turkish government will establish the Turkish Space Agency this year in order to coordinate the country's space activities and manage international cooperation and relations.

A new report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) argues that despite the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA - also known as the Iran nuclear deal) an opportunity exists to constrain Iranian ballistic missile capabilities through arms control in return for allowing Iran to maintain a space launch capability that is closely monitored.

Euroconsult, a leading satellite advisory and consulting firm, has released its latest Small Satellite report and predicts that over the next ten years up to 7,000 small satellites will be built and launched globally.

The Secure World Foundation (SWF), the influential think-tank that focuses on the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of space, has announced the appointment of Dr. Peter Martinez as its new Executive Director effective 1 October 2018.

Nigerian media has reported that foreign telecommunication companies are refusing to use the services of NIGCOMSAT-1R because it is far more expensive than current market prices elsewhere, leading to claims that Nigeria’s indigenous satellite communications sector is uncompetitive.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Oman in February 2018 has resulted in the release of a joint statement by Muscat and New Delhi identifying space as one of several sectors in which the two nations could collaborate.

Nestled inside a protective aluminum shell is a silicon disc about the size of a United States half dollar. Inscribed on this disc are microscopic messages from leaders of 73 nations solicited by Thomas Paine, then head of NASA.

Azercosmos, the national space agency of Azerbaijan, and the French space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), have signed a space cooperation agreement which focuses specifically on collaboration in Earth observation.

The UAE Space Agency has signed an agreement with the U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space and with the new UAE Astronaut Programme.

The French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), met earlier in July 2018 to discuss working together within the framework of the Space Climate Observatory (SCO) and bilateral space cooperation in space launch and the development of Korean positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellites.