Policy and Law

In this article, Simon Drake, MD of Space Ventures Investors, CEO of Space Commodities Exchange, and organiser of Space Resources Community Voice, explores the reasons why space really has to rise to the top of politicians' lists of priorities and why it's down to us to do something about it. 

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall was at the 4th Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) symposium that is taking place in Herzliya, Israel, from Monday 4 to Friday 8 November 2019 on the theme of “Small Satellites for Sustainable Science and Development."

The UAE, represented by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has launched the UAE Sirius Mission, in partnership with the Roscosmos Space Agency’s Scientific International Research In a Unique terrestrial Station (SIRIUS) analog at Russia’s IBMP Ground-based Experimental Complex, NEK, in Moscow.

Glavkosmos, a subsidiary company of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, has signed an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to provide life support and spacecraft thermal technologies for the Indian Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) launched the fourth edition of the Young Professionals in Space (YPS) Conference, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, and the Turkish Space Agency are reported to be in advanced discussions over a formal bilateral space cooperation agreement, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The Chinese government has started an initiative to promote greater use of its BeiDou global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in Central Asian countries for applications such as precision farming, transportation, and disaster relief and management.

Kazakhstan has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation with Turkey in order to collaborate on space launch out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, according to an official from the Aerospace Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry.

Sudan's first satellite, the Sudan Remote Sensing Satellite (SRSS)-1, was successfully launched in the morning on 3 November 2019 by a Chinese Long March 4B satellite launch vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s northern Shanxi Province, according to reporting in Space in Africa.

The head of the Iran Space Agency, Morteza Barari, told Iranian media that Iran plans to develop and build a high-resolution Earth observation satellite capable of taking images of one-metre resolution.