Policy and Law

Sias Mostert, chairman of South African company Space Commercial Services (SCS), has called for a national – even regional – Internet of Things (IoT) nanosatellite constellation that would provide dedicated and perhaps even persistent coverage of South Africa and neighbouring countries.

Representatives of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), signed a Joint Statement of Intent to explore different areas through technical and programmatic discussions with the objective of identifying opportunities for collaboration.

Ankara recently hosted its Turkey-Italy Innovation Day event where space cooperation between the two countries was highlighted by senior officials and corporate executives. Among the agenda items of the event was a common desire to increase space cooperation and satellite development between the two countries.

China and Azerbaijan have great prospects for cooperation in the space sector, Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Guo Min told reporters in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to a report by the Trend News Agency on 18 October 2019.

On 5 and 6 October 2019 in Kyoto, Japan, Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall took part in the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum 2019 and the 10th EU-Japan Science Policy Forum.

The head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA), Morteza Barari, has said that Iran is looking to open discussions with Russia about the possibility of sending an Iranian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), according to Iranian press reports.

Algeria and Russia discussed expanding space cooperation and increased development of Algerian space capabilities during a visit to Algiers by a Russian delegation consisting of officials and executives from the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, Russian commercial launch provider Glavkosmos, and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics (VNIIEM) that is responsible for developing sensors for environmental monitoring, meteorological, and other remote sensing satellites.

The Ethiopian government has revealed that it will break ground on a satellite manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing (MAIT) facility in the Addis Ababa area in January 2020, signaling the start of the second phase of its space development strategy.

The head of the Egyptian Space Agency announced that Egypt intends to send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) during a visit to Cairo by a delegation from the UAE Space Agency (UAESA) on 16 October 2019.

Following the setup of SpaceResources.lu initiative in 2016 to promote and develop the research, economic and legal aspects of space resources, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) established a working group to explore the opportunities for international cooperation in the field of space resources.