Naming a satellite after a person – other than historical or mythical figures – is a very rare occurrence.

Digital Earth Africa(DE Africa) has signed a partnership with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Kenya, AGRHYMET Regional Centre in Niger and the Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, for the building and provision of skills and expertise needed for the use of satellite data in Africa.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released an updated plan for U.S. Earth observation 09 December calling for improved coordination, greater engagement with the private sector and efforts to assess the value of the data.

New research has demonstrated how satellite-based Earth observation could allow for more accurate monitoring of ocean carbon dioxide levels and consequently evoke positive policy change.

ICEYE, the global leader in small satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology, today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RS Metrics to jointly offer to the commodities market the world's first global SAR-based iron ore inventories dataset with up to daily updates. Access to the dataset will provide commodities traders and industry analysts further competitive advantages in predicting supply and demand, at higher update intervals, and with better accuracy.

Pacific island countries vulnerable to climate change will benefit from space technology to help them plan for and prevent natural disasters, thanks to a new UK and Australian partnership.

Earth imaging specialists Maxar Technologies will collaborate with the Australian Space Agency on areas of strategic interest including Earth observation, space infrastructure capabilities and education initiatives.

With the first commercial satellite servicing spacecraft about to launch, industry executives argue that government agencies, primarily seen as developers of key servicing technologies, also need to be customers of those systems.

ICEYE, the global leader in small satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a commercial reseller agreement with ST Engineering Geo-Insights Pte Ltd. to serve the commercial and government markets in South East Asia. As a part of the agreement, the two companies will provide mutual support to develop the regional and global market for rapid revisit, high resolution SAR imagery and SAR based geospatial analytics.

The ESA–SAP World Space Alliance continues to grow as Airbus Defence and Space, the Environmental Systems Research Institute and GeoVille join the partnership.

ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions, under its Kick-start Activity program, has awarded funding to SpaceChain UK to further develop and identify commercial use-cases for its satellite blockchain technology.

As operators of Earth observation satellites prepare to update their fleets, with an emphasis on both improved resolution and revisit time, they disagree on how much demand there is for existing and new data.

Satellite earth observation is a global enterprise right from the days of Landsat. However, with rapid privatization of the industry, there are conflicts between the data policy dictated by commercial requirements and national laws. Initiatives at national, sub-national and regional levels and their due alignment with each other is imperative to understand the impact on the industry.

Airbus has enlarged its high-resolution imagery portfolio following an agreement to leverage capacity from the S1-4 satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). This new imagery offer called Vision-1 delivers full end-to-end imaging operations to Airbus' customers.

The Chinese-French Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) was launched on 29 October last year, for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (the French Space Agency, CNES).

Under the annual theme "Towards A Safer Urban Future", the 2nd Resilient Infrastructure Forum took place in Colombia from 4 to 6 June 2019. The Forum aimed to develop a coordinated long-term strategy to overcome challenges posed by disasters, such as severe storms, tsunamis or earthquakes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ursa, a provider of geospatial intelligence solutions, today announced it signed a collaboration agreement with ICEYE to expand the global market for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and analytic products.

Airbus and the Hellenic Space Agency have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering future space cooperation. The MOU will focus on Earth observation, space exploration and future growth opportunities including software research and space policy.

While scientists and data users continue to discuss the latest findings about our changing world and the space technologies that are needed to learn more, this week's Living Planet Symposium has also been the forum to forge and strengthen alliances. And, today sees the start of a two-year pilot for the ESA–SAP World Space Alliance.

EUMETSAT and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) today signed an agreement which will result in the agencies working closely together to monitor greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.