Kanagawa Prefecture appointed the character 'Uchu Nanchara Kotetsu-kun' as a space promotion ambassador to support outreach and next-generation talent development.

Kanagawa Prefecture will hold the Kanagawa Space Summit on February 5 in Yokohama with sessions targeting businesses considering entry into the space industry.

The Sagamihara Industrial Creation Center provides lab functions for simple manufacturing work supporting space-related activities.

Kanagawa Prefecture established an expert advisory council on space industry promotion that includes academic specialists in space, business practitioners, and astronauts.

Kanagawa Prefecture has an industrial concentration in satellite-related manufacturing and a clustered presence of manufacturing and life-science companies.

JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) has a research facility located in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Kanagawa Prefecture allocated, for the first time, a budget specifically for space-related industries in fiscal year 2025.

KANAGAWA Space Village opened in December near JR Hashimoto station as a coworking and collaboration hub for space-related companies, local governments, research institutions, and financial organizations.

Kanagawa Prefecture is running a Satellite Data Business Utilization Promotion program that is currently supporting three publicly selected projects focused on agriculture and infrastructure inspection use cases.

Kanagawa Prefecture has planned summit sessions aimed at encouraging participation from medical and life-science companies from Kawasaki and the Shonan region such as the Life Innovation Center and Shonan Health Innovation Park.

Hale SWx’s forecasting approach focuses on the underlying electromagnetic forces that drive the solar cycle rather than on the spread of sunspots on the solar surface.

Chris Habib, director of systems engineering at HawkEye 360, indicated that using Hale SWx’s forecasts enables optimization of replenishment strategy and capital expenditures over a five-year horizon.

Using Hale SWx’s forecasts allows operators to reduce the risk of unexpected satellite outages from premature de-orbiting due to increased solar activity and to avoid overinvesting in redundant hardware.

Hale SWx is a space weather forecasting startup that predicts the Sun’s activity.

HawkEye 360 has a five-year deal to use Hale SWx’s forecasts and atmospheric density predictions to inform its satellite deployment plans.

Hale SWx is running both paid and unpaid pilot programs with other constellation operators.

Hale SWx’s forecasts enable constellation operators to forecast space weather patterns years in advance and schedule replenishment when satellites are nearing end of life.

Hale SWx produces atmospheric density predictions used for satellite planning.

Katherine Monson estimates that Hale SWx captures less than 10% of the value it creates.

Hale SWx was founded by Katherine Monson, the former CEO of KSAT US, and heliophysicist Scott McIntosh.

Hale SWx sells solar-forecast and atmospheric-density data to satellite operators for constellation planning.

Hale SWx signed a similar agreement with Planet.

Hale SWx’s model produces an average skill score of approximately 0.72 on a scale where 0 is a complete guess and 1 is a perfect prediction.

The modernization will transform the FOC-1A antenna into a hub for Near-Earth and Deep Space communications.

The RESPONSE program focuses on modernizing the FOC-1A antenna at the Piero Fanti Fucino Space Centre in Abruzzo, Italy.

Roberto Formaro, Head of ASI’s Engineering and Technology Directorate, considers the antenna's location in the Fucino plain to be a strategic bridge within the network of international ground stations.

Under the RESPONSE program, the FOC-1A infrastructure will be overhauled to meet the high-data-rate requirements of 21st-century exploration.

Alessandra Farese, SVP of Satellite Systems & Operations at Telespazio, considers lunar communications to be strategic infrastructure beyond mere technical support.

Telespazio is a company within the Leonardo Group.

The FOC-1A antenna transmitted the live images of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing to Italian television audiences.

The FOC-1A antenna is a 27-meter-diameter parabolic dish.

The RESPONSE program aims to integrate the Fucino Space Centre into the global space economy and support several major international programs.

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Telespazio signed a strategic agreement on February 3, 2026 to launch the RESPONSE program.

Astranis and Oman-based conglomerate MB Group have a strategic agreement for Oman’s first dedicated MicroGEO satellite.

The collaboration is intended to bring high-performance connectivity to governments, enterprises, and communities in the region.

MB Group describes the collaboration as supporting Oman Vision 2040 to deliver resilient, high-performance infrastructure for a digital-first country.

Astranis’ dedicated network for Oman will provide the Sultanate with sovereign control over its digital infrastructure.

The collaboration between Astranis and MB Group is intended to expand satellite broadband capacity across key markets in the Middle East.

The dedicated MicroGEO satellite for Oman is contracted as part of Astranis’ Block 3 launch later this year.

MB Group committed $200 million of investment toward Oman Vision 2040 programs in the satellite sector, including the dedicated MicroGEO satellite, ground stations, and other infrastructure investments.

Usama Al Barwani is Vice Chairperson of MB LLC.

John Gedmark is Chief Executive Officer of Astranis.

MB Group is adopting Astranis’s next-generation high-orbit solutions as part of its portfolio of global partnerships.

Airbus’s fleet includes both optical and radar satellite constellations to provide complementary services and applications across various resolutions and all-weather, day-and-night capabilities.

Users will be able to directly task Airbus Pléiades Neo Next satellites up to a few dozen minutes prior to a satellite overpass of an area of interest.

Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next together will provide higher revisit frequencies anywhere on Earth, up to several times per day.

Pléiades Neo Next is a program funded, manufactured, and operated by Airbus Defense and Space.

Pléiades Neo Next development will improve the ground segment, the Direct Receiving Stations, and the OneAtlas platform to increase imagery request capacity and optimize the time between request, capture, and reception.

Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next together will provide the best spatial resolution and geolocation accuracy available in the market.

Airbus is developing new Earth observation capabilities based on stratospheric platforms.