Tag Archives: Space Launch

The United States National Space Council was re-established by President Donald J. Trump in 2017 after ceasing operations in 1993. The Council works to develop a strategy for national space activities and also to foster co-operation with other countries and space agencies in order to advance the U.S. space agenda and to share information.

The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has announced that it is postponing the planned engine test of its Korean Space Launch Vehicle-II (KSLV-II) rocket engine after a pre-test check found a problem with the engine's propellant pressurization system.

Astroscale Japan Inc., an affiliate of Singaporean-Japanese New Space company Astroscale that aims to utilise technology top remove space debris in Earth orbit, has contracted with Russian satellite launch provider Glavkosmos/GK Launch Services to launch its End of Life Services by Astroscale –demonstration (ELSA-d) spacecraft on a Soyuz-2 cluster mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome in early 2020.

Audacy, a space communications service provider based in the U.S. and Singapore and deploying the first commercially licensed inter-satellite data relay network, has announced that it had achieved a significant milestone by securing pre-service commercial agreements valued at over U.S.$100 million.

South Korea will test a rocket engine designed and built by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in a suborbital launch to be carried out at the end of October 2018, according to reports in the South Korean press.

Japanese New Space exploration and space resources company Ispace has signed a launch agreement with SpaceX to launch their first privately-funded Lunar mission in 2020.

Japanese New Space company PD Aerospace intends to develop a space plane capable of carrying passengers by 2023, making it the latest of a growing number of companies in the Asia-Pacific region seeking to enter the small satellite and space tourism market over the coming years.

The Australian Government will fund the development of a rocket engine as part of the creation of a sovereign launch capability.

The French national space agency, the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), and the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), met earlier in July 2018 to discuss working together within the framework of the Space Climate Observatory (SCO) and bilateral space cooperation in space launch and the development of Korean positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellites.

Thailand’s mu Space contributed part of the payload lofted by Blue Origin’s New Shepard Reusable Launch Vehicle in a successful test of the launch vehicle last week in the U.S. The six-kilogram payload, sent by mu Space, included experiments and technologies provided by mu Space as well as by Thai universities and space agencies.