Makoto Suwa will become the 8th Japanese astronaut to complete a long-term stay aboard the International Space Station starting around 2027, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced.

The mission, which will be Suwa’s first in space, will mark the 15th long-term stay by a Japanese astronaut, according to JAXA.

Suwa, a former senior disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank, was selected as a candidate astronaut in 2023. Officially certified as an astronaut in 2024, he has undergone training through NASA’s Johnson Space Center with astronauts from Europe, the United …

Chinese firms have signalled plans to launch more than 200,000 internet satellites, filing submissions with a UN agency just as Beijing accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of crowding shared orbital resources.
A dozen or so submissions from various Chinese satellite players were filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the end of last month.
The biggest projects – CTC-1 and CTC-2 – were for 96,714 satellites each and filed by the newly established Institute of Radio Spectrum Utilisation and Technological Innovation.
The institute was registered in China’s northern Hebei province on December 30, the day …

The third satellite part of the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) constellation, owned by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense,  built by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) and operated in orbit by Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), has successfully been launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (USA), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

59 minutes after the separation from its launcher, the satellite’s signal was acquired and controlled by Telespazio’s Fucino Space Center located …

The Transporter-15 mission by SpaceX successfully launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. As part of the mission, MICE-1 (Maritime Identification and Communications systEm), the first Greek IoT nanosatellite, was successfully deployed into orbit.

This milestone marks a historic achievement for the Greek tech community, the shipping industry, and domestic space innovation.

MICE-1 is the first Greek nanosatellite specifically designed for maritime and IoT communication applications. Developed entirely at Prisma Electronics’ facilities in Alexandroupolis, it aims to bring Greek shipping—and critical operational infrastructures in disaster scenarios—closer …

The Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA) has released its Reference Architecture document, offering strategic recommendations to accelerate the development, deployment, and global integration of open and interoperable Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions.

As satellite communications advance, NTN systems are increasingly vital to extending connectivity to remote and underserved regions, while complementing terrestrial networks. MSSA’s Reference Architecture emphasizes the importance of system-level design to ensure consistent device performance and seamless user experiences.
Developed by the MSSA Technical Committee’s Reference Architecture Work Group, the document addresses key challenges and outlines best practices across the entire service delivery …