Tag Archives: Russia

In remarks made marking the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan at both a commemorative ceremony and in the Japanese Diet, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged that Japan will make efforts to counter threats in space and cyberspace and that the Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) will stand up its Space Domain Mission Unit (SDMU) in April 2020, with the aim of having it fully operational by 2022.

The lower house of the Kazakh parliament approved legislation in December 2019 that amends Kazakh-Russian space cooperation at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kyzylorda region of southwest Kazakhstan, as well as the return to Kazakhstan of four areas of land leased by Russia around the large launch complex.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is understood to be in separate talks with Kazakhstan regarding space cooperation, and South Korea regarding economic cooperation in satellite manufacturing and applications, according to Saudi and regional press reports.

Indonesia is understood to be in talks with Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, about the possibility of Russia training and launching the Southeast Asian country’s first astronaut.

AzerCosmos, the Azerbaijani satellite operator, reported revenues of U.S.$40.6 million for the period of January to November 2019, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2018, when the company generated revenues of just U.S.$25.6 million.

The head of the Egyptian Space Agency, Mohammed el-Qousy, announced on 25 December 2019 that the agency will launch a nationwide, six-year long competition to select Egypt's first astronaut.

Ukrainian and Russian press are reporting that Ukrainian aerospace giant and design office Yuzhnoye is planning to build four variants of its Mayak heavy lift space launch vehicle, subject to Western investment.

The Saudi Arabian Space Commission is reportedly about to submit a National Space Strategy and other legal and policy documents that consolidate the commission's roles and missions to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, according to a senior Saudi Space Commission advisor speaking at a recent space event in Riyadh.

Japanese satellite and space industry giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has announced that an MHI H-IIA satellite launch vehicle will send Japan's eighth Intelligence Gathering System (IGS) reconnaissance satellite into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwest Japan, on 27 January 2020.

By Ralph Thiele Part One of this essay was published on 21 December 2019 and can be found here. … open for business Large companies and start-ups are using space as a business model, as it enables them to offer new services or generate key data for processing and commercialisation …