Russia is preparing a national concept for Moon exploration by March 2019, according to the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. This news comes after the U.S. national space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), put forward its Lunar Gateway project which will see the agency construct a gateway to act as a "single stepping off point in architecture for human cislunar operations, lunar surface operations and missions to Mars."
Read More »Iran And Iraq Discuss Possible Space Cooperation
Iran’s ICT Minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, and his Iraqi counterpart have called for broadening joint cooperation in space and information technology (IT) after a meeting on 22 January 2019.
Read More »European Military Space: European Union Commissioner Calls For European Space Force Discussion
Some unnamed European Union member states are discussing the possibility of creating a European space force according to Elzbieta Bienkowska, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, and Entrepreneurship and who is also in charge of EU space policy.
Read More »India Installs SATCOM Ground Stations And Terminals In SAARC Member-States
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will deliver five ground stations and a total of 500 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) to enable its neighbours to benefit from satellite-based services such as TV, Internet, telephone, disaster management, and telemedicine.
Read More »Success for China’s historic Chang’e 4 Mission to the lunar ‘far side’
Human space exploration has received another significant boost with the successful landing of a Chinese probe on the far side of the moon – a feat that has never before been accomplished. Chinese state media confirmed that the spacecraft had performed a ‘soft landing’ at 10.26am (2.26am GMT) on January 2. The confirmation came after an earlier tweet was deleted from China Daily and various other sources, proclaiming the mission a success.
Read More »Indian Human Spaceflight: Gaganyaan Mission In 2022 To Orbit Three Astronauts, Cost $1.4 Billion
The Indian government announced on 28 December 2018 that its Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission expected to take place in 2022 will consist of three crew members, last for five to seven days in orbit, and is budgeted for the equivalent of U.S.$1.43 billion, according to Indian media reports.
Read More »Russia To Decommission Rokot SLV And Make Only One Launch From Vostochny in 2019
The last two launches of the Rokot satellite launch vehicle fitted with a Ukrainian-made control system will be carried out in 2019, after which the vehicle will be decommissioned, a source in the Russian space industry told Russian news outlet Sputnik on 18 December 2018.
Read More »British Military Space: Warfare In Space Domain Part Of UK Modernising Defence Programme Review
In an announcement made to the British Parliament on 18 December 2018, UK Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson announced that a wide-ranging review of defence policy and capabilities that aims to prepare British armed forces for 21st Century warfare with peer powers is about to be concluded
Read More »Azerbaijan Mulling New Earth Observation Satellite; Georgia Discusses Access To AzerSky-1
Azerbaijan’s state space corporation, Azercosmos, will examine the economic and commercial feasibility of building additional Earth observation satellites in its approved 2019-2022 state programme for remote sensing, according to a report by the Trend News Agency.
Read More »India And Japan To Hold First Space Dialogue In March 2019
India and Japan have scheduled their first annual bilateral space dialogue in March 2019, where they will discuss cooperation and coordination on a range of civil and national security space issues, ranging from space-based maritime domain awareness and satellite reconnaissance through to the harmonization of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems and space exploration, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.
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