Polaris - Banner

Tag Archives: Satellite Launch

Arabsat-6A In Final Tests Before SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Later in 2018

Lockheed Martin, the giant U.S. aerospace company, has completed the assembly of the ARABSAT-6A communications satellite, and has shipped it to the Lockheed Martin facilities in Sunnyvale, California, for final tests and preparations prior to its launch on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle later this year. Once successfully …

Read More »

China’s Satellites for Recognition and Resource Access Strategy at Work in Bolivia

China continues to move forward in its ongoing use of regional space and satellite deals to access the natural resources of other countries. As reported last week in The Sydney Morning Herald, China is amassing space-related contracts with countries in Central and South America, regions which have often lagged in space-related …

Read More »

Satellites Over the Mediterranean: SpaceX Successfully Launches Spain’s PAZ Reconnaissance Satellite

SpaceX successfully launched Spain’s high-resolution synthetic aperture radar  (SAR) PAZ reconnaissance satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Thursday, 22 February, 2018. The successful launch of PAZ is the latest by a Mediterranean country and intensifies the space-based surveillance and reconnaissance competition of the geopolitically important sea. The …

Read More »

Bhutan to Create Own Space Agency and Launch CubeSat in 2018

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is to create its own space agency and will have its Bhutanese-built Cubesat – BHUTAN-1 – launched in 2018 from Japan. Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay announced that a space agency is to be created under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and …

Read More »

Japan’s ASEAN Space Diplomacy: Is Brunei Next?

China’s Space Silk Road, an offshoot of its much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has captured the attention of the space sector’s trade media over the past few years, but while China’s ambitions are certainly newsworthy, another Northeast Asian country is quietly building a scientific, technical, and diplomatic space community …

Read More »

Indian Space Programme Widens Its Appeal to Latin America

India

India’s space programme continues to broaden its appeal into Latin America, becoming a truly global competitor in the launch market and beyond. Several countries in the region have made outreach toward working with India in the coming months. As reported in Indian Defence News this week, Colombia plans to put …

Read More »

UAE and India Commit to Joint Space Cooperation After Joint Working Group Meeting

Emirati and Indian officials have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in space exploration and satellite projects following the first meeting of the UAE-Indian Joint Working Group on space in December 2017. Details of that meeting were revealed by senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials during a visit to the …

Read More »

Indonesia to Build Earth Observation Constellation; Develop Space Launch Capability

The head of the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN – Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional) announced in Singapore that his country intends to build and launch two Earth observation microsatellites by 2020, and that Indonesia still has ambitions to develop its own space launch capability. Prof. Dr. …

Read More »

SGAC@SpaceWatchGL Op’Ed: Small Satellites Everywhere, for Everything, Forever?

The small satellite phenomenon continues to gather momentum, but is this something we can count on lasting well into the future? Is the smallsat here to stay? Stephen Ennis of the Small Satellite Project Group at the Space Generation Advisory Council gives his perspective on this fascinating question. From within …

Read More »

UK’s Surrey Satellite to Lease Earth Observation Satellite to China’s 21AT

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), located in Guildford, Surrey, in the U.K., has signed a GBP25 million (approximately U.S.$34.8 million) deal with China’s Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd. (21AT) for the lease of the SSTL-S1 Earth observation satellite. SSTL-S1 is due to be launched on an Indian Space …

Read More »