Tag Archives: China

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.

The China Ocean Shipping Group Company, popularly known as COSCO, has fallen victim to a ransomware attack connected to its operations in the Americas and has resulted in the company being completely disconnected from the Internet, severing communications between COSCO, its vendors, and its clients.

Israel’s SpaceIL has announced that it will launch its Moon probe on a SpaceX launch vehicle, to land in February 2019. If successful, the SpaceIL lunar mission will make Israel the fourth-ever country to land on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, U.S., and China.

Sky and Space Global Ltd. (SAS), the New Space satellite communications company that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the potential launch of SAS’s Pearl constellation of satellites.

Pakistan’s first high-resolution Earth observation satellite, the Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS) 1, and the country’s first indigenously built test satellite, PakTES-1A, were successfully launched from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on the morning of Monday, 9 July 2018, on board a Long March-2C satellite launch vehicle.

France’s Airbus Defence and Space appears to have beaten China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) in a bid to provide an Earth observation satellite for the Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the West African nation that was formerly a French colony.

Japan’s Space One has declared that it will begin commercial launch operations in 2022, revealing an ambitious agenda for a company entering a very crowded regional and international market.

Pakistan is set to have its indigenously-built Earth observation satellite, PakTES-1A, as well as its Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS)-1, launched by China in July 2018 in a bid to catch up with its geopolitical rival, India.

Cyber security company Symantec has identified a Chinese hacking group (also called an Advanced Persistent Threat – APT) known as Thirp, which the company believes has the ability, potentially, to take over the computers of satellite communications operators in Southeast Asia and the United States that control their satellites.