Tag Archives: Geopolitics

Russian scientists, with the support of the Russian government, intend to place a number of ground-based observatories in the Nenets Autonomous Region on Russia's Northwest Arctic Ocean coast for the purposes of providing space situational awareness (SSA) of satellites and space debris in Polar orbits as the pass over the Arctic region, according to a report published on 7 November 2018 by the Russian news agency, TASS.

As part of significant defence reforms being proposed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia is considering the creation of a Cyber Security and Space Force, that if implemented, will operate under the command of the Ethiopian military.

China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) has unveiled details about its experimental Quantum radar technology during a press conference at the Zhuhai Airshow in China on 5 November 2018, according to a report first published in U.S. trade publication Aviation Week & Space Technology.

China and Russia have signed a cooperative agreement on 7 November 2018 covering their respective global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), BeiDou and GLONASS.

Japan's New Space scene is little known and understood outside of Tokyo, despite the emergence of some interesting startups such as iSpace and Infostellar to name just two as well as some big Japanese government announcements about supporting startups in the space sector. SpaceWatch.Global reached out to Masashi Sato, a Senior Consultant at the Nomura Research Institute Ltd. (NRI) in Tokyo and a leading expert on the Japanese space startup scene, to find out what the current state of play is and what the future holds.

Pakistan announced on 25 October 2018 that it will send an astronaut into orbit by 2022 with the help of China, weeks after its arch-geopolitical rival India announced the start of its own human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, in cooperation with Russia, France, and other countries.

The Indian government's Cabinet Committee on Security has approved the creation of the Defence Cyber Agency, the Defence Space Agency, and the Special Operations Division as part of ongoing defence reforms designed to deal with emerging and new threats, according to government sources quoted in the Indian media.

Russian launch provider Eurokot has suggested that its Rokot-2 light launcher could resume service in 2021 now that the launch vehicle uses Russian-made control systems. The last Rokot-2 launch occurred in April 2018 using the last launcher that used Ukrainian-made control systems.

Airbus Defence and Space has offered to build capacity in and boost the Azerbaijani space industry, according to Airbus Vice-President for Eurasia Silvere Delaunay.

The Virgin Group, the parent company of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit, has withdrawn from all discussions over a U.S.$1 billion investment in its space activities with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) following the alleged torture and murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on 2 October 2018.