10 January 2018
During a State Visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the People’s Republic of China, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall signed a memorandum of understanding on climate actions and space exploration with Wu Yanhua, Acting Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The MoU was signed on 9 January in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. This boost to French-Chinese space cooperation was followed on 10 January by President Macron’s visit to CNSA’s technical facility, where he was shown the CFOSat (Chinese-French Oceanic Satellite) ocean-observing satellite that is the cornerstone of the two nations’ joint efforts to tackle climate change. Macron also visited the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, where he received a scale model of the China-France Oceanography Satellite to be launched this year.
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09 January 2018
The agreement coincides with French President Emmanuel Macron’s first state visit to China and supports efforts by France and China to strengthen their technological and economic cooperation in the context of France’s “Industry of the Future” and China’s “Made in China 2025” industrial initiatives. CASC will leverage the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to support the digital transformation of CASC and accelerate efficiency and innovation in China’s industries. It will explore cooperation in information technology, digitalization software and consulting services to enhance digitalization and intelligent manufacturing capacities. CASC, with 180,000 employees, is leading China’s space programme roadmap to boost the country’s innovation capabilities for space exploration and transportation and reduce their associated costs.
In parallel, Dassault Systèmes announced that it is a founding member of the new France-China Business Council, a group of 30 companies spanning industries such as aerospace, construction, food, energy, health and high-tech. The council’s mission is to create synergies between French and Chinese companies and to advise both governments on industry, innovation and digitalization.  Other founding members include Airbus, Alibaba, COMAC, Danone Group, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Huawei, LVMH, Michelin and Sanofi.
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09 January 2018
A comprehensive article by Echo Huang and Tripti Lahiri, published on the Quartz media website, explains the current situation with space debris and the efforts taken by various nations to tackle the situation and for the removal of defunct objects from orbital trajectories. It also gives an objective evaluation of the posed threat by Tiangong's re-entry.
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09 January 2018
The Chief Designer of China's space laboratories has denied Western media reports that the nation's Tiangong 1 space lab was "out of control" and will crash land, according to Science and Technology Daily. Zhu Zongpeng, a Senior Scientist with the China Academy of Space Technology, which has built the Tiangong series, told the Beijing newspaper that Chinese scientists are constantly monitoring Tiangong 1 and will "make it fall back to the Earth" in the first half of this year. Parts of the spacecraft will burn up during re-entry, while the rest will fall into a designated area of the ocean without endangering people and property on the ground, he said.
Already last year, ESA announced that it will host a test campaign to follow the re-entry of Tiangong 1, which will be conducted by the Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). IADC comprises space debris and other experts from 13 international space agencies and organisations. ESA had to manage its own uncontrolled re-entry of its GOCE satellite in 2013 and will need to handle its inactive 8.2 t Earth-observing satellite ENVISAT which is still in medium Earth orbit but contact was lost in April 2012.
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Tiangong 1 Target Vehicle Orbital Status Weekly Reports on the CMSA website