The African Union Commission is Organizing the 1st forum of the GMES and Africa Programme, under the theme "Unlocking the Potential for Earth Observation as a key drivier of Africa's sustainable development". It will be held from 19 to 23 November 2018, in Libreville, Gabon.

The European Commission's role as Chair of CEOS has offered a remarkable opportunity to further advance CEOS priorities. The European Commission worked with the past chair USGS, the 2018-2019 Chair of the Strategic Implementation Team, NOAA, and the relevant stakeholders to ensure substantive and timely continuity of CEOS activities.

The Commerce Department plans to soon release a new rule designed to streamline licensing of commercial remote sensing systems with what one official called a "fundamentally different" approach for licensing.

In August, Airbus Intelligence, a key player in the global geospatial industry, announced its Zephyr high-altitude drone set a world record, remaining aloft for nearly 26 days while gathering high-resolution imagery of Arizona.

As a growing number of organizations propose satellites to monitor greenhouse gases, national space agencies who already operate such spacecraft welcome those new entrants — as long as they're willing to share their results.

HyperSat LLC emerged from stealth mode in September to announce it raised $85 million to launch two high-resolution hyperspectral imaging satellites in 2020.

NASA has launched a pilot program to evaluate how Earth science data from commercial small-satellite constellations could supplement observations from the agency's fleet of orbiting Earth science missions. On 28 September, the agency awarded sole-source contracts to acquire test data sets from three private sector organizations.

Airbus and the Australian Space Agency (ASA) have signed a statement of intent confirming the European manufacturer's commitment towards enhancing the capability and competitiveness of the country's space sector.

About 170 participants from national meteorological and hydrological services, government agencies and regional institutions in more than 50 African nations are attending the 13th biennial forum in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

European launch provider Arianespace signed a contract with the Korean Aerospace Research Institute for a Vega C mission 20 Sept., growing the rocket's backlog to five as its debut launch nears.

Planet, who operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites, and Orbital Insight, the leader in geospatial analytics, announced today a multi-year contract for Orbital Insight to source daily, global satellite imagery from Planet. The contract is an expansion of their previous imagery-sharing agreement.

Arianespace announced today that it will orbit THEOS-2, the very-high-resolution Earth observation optical satellite for Thailand, under the terms of a turnkey contract between Airbus Defence and Space and the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand (GISTDA).

Copernicus, the European Union's flagship programme for Earth Observation and Monitoring, can be used to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out by the United Nations (UN), in Europe and worldwide.

Airbus will work with Việt Nam to develop the country's space sector following a recent letter of intent inked between the company and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

ESA's Director General Jan Wörner and Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Ambroise Fayolle signed a joint statement on enhancing the competitiveness of the European space sector by supporting investments in actors of the sector with promising short- or medium-term perspectives on 13 July 2018.

Meeting in Oslo, Norway, this week, the EUMETSAT Council approved funding for industrial activities required by EUMETSAT for the long term storage of the four Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) recurrent satellites after their acceptance at the Pre-Storage Reviews, their de-storage, the preparation and execution of their launch campaigns and support to in orbit commissioning.

On 22 June, Nicolas Chamussy, EVP Space Systems for Airbus Defence and Space and Sarah Parker, SSTL's Managing Director, signed a contract for the provision of a small satellite system and delivery of a training programme for Thailand's THEOS-2 programme.

Airbus and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the UNISPACE+50 conference celebrating half a century of international cooperation in outer space.

WASHINGTON — Planet and Airbus Defense and Space's geospatial division have agreed to co-develop imagery products that leverage both companies' satellites.

JAXA and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) signed the Implementation Arrangement (IA) concerning cooperation on validations, improvements, and applications of rainfall products using satellite images and ground measurements.