- The commercial space agency of the Indian government, NewSpace India, has said that it will be launching a broadband communication satellite atop a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket. The GSAT-20 is anticipated to deploy in the second quarter of 2024, offering cellular backhaul service and In-Flight and Maritime Connectivity (IFMC) to isolated and underserved regions of India. If this mission is successful, it will be the first time an Indian space agency has launched on one of Elon Musk’s rockets.
- Although India possesses three rocket launchers, none of them are suitable for the GSAT-20. It was anticipated that the launch would take place on the LVM3, but weight constraints could prevent it.
- There are few possibilities because the Ariane 5, India’s regular backup, is no longer in operation, the Ariane 6 is not yet operational, and the Atlas 5 is fully booked.
- With the signing of a 5G IP license deal, Nokia and Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor have now completed four significant litigation-free smartphone agreements in the last 12 months. Over one-third of Nokia’s operational income in 2022 came from licensing, which accounts for a sizeable amount of the company’s entire portfolio. Nokia has had trouble collecting license fees for the use of its patents from other Chinese device manufacturers.
- On January 1st, China’s Interim Regulations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Flight Management went into effect. Operators now have to register their UAVs under their true names and attach a matching QR code to the UAV hardware, or else they risk paying a fine that can range from $28 to $2820. The government also intends to impose fines on parents who fail to keep an eye on their kids when they use drones or UAVs and on parents who don’t operate their equipment at the proper altitudes or speeds.
- By the fourth quarter of 2025, Xpeng Motors stated in a Hong Kong stock market filing that it anticipates its affiliate venture, Xpeng Aeroht, to be producing flying cars on a large scale.
- The Southeast Asian e-commerce behemoth Lazada, controlled by Alibaba, abruptly lay off hundreds of workers last week, and US intelligence determined that the air balloon that passed over the US last year was using an unidentified commercial US internet provider.
- The assertion that China has successfully developed a means of mass producing 5 nm laptop processors on its own was called into question when a Huawei notebook was disassembled and the 5 nm Kirin 9006C CPU, produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), was discovered.
Source:
The Register