Zimbabwe and Uganda recently launched their first homegrown satellites – a "milestone" for the efforts in space activities for the countries. Zimbabwe's ZimSat-1 and Uganda's PearlAfricaSat-1 are part of the BIRDS-5 constellation, which is now on its way to the International Space Station, according to the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER). The satellites, launched into space Monday, are scheduled to be released from the Japanese Kibo module on November 21 this year, UN-SPIDER added. Read more: Bangabandhu satellite-1 to be used to restore telecommunication in flood-hit areasOnce in orbit, the two satellites will collect images to help Zimbabwe and Uganda with mineral exploration, monitoring of environmental hazards and droughts, human settlement and disease outbreak mapping, and other potential fields of applications. A project run by Japan's Graduate School of Engineering at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, BIRDS-5 is a constellation of CubeSats.

China on Wednesday sent 16 new satellites into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi. The satellites, including a Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D09 satellite and Yunyao-1 04-08 satellites, were launched by a Long March-6 carrier rocket at 12:50 p.m. Beijing Time and entered the planned orbit successfully. Read: China reaffirms threat of military force to annex Taiwan The new batch of satellites is mainly used in the fields such as commercial remote sensing and atmospheric imaging. This launch marked the 432nd mission for the Long March series carrier rockets.

Indian on Saturday evening successfully launched into space as many as 10 satellites in one go, including its latest earth observation satellite (EOS-01) and nine more satellites from foreign nations, the first such mission during the Covid pandemic.

Chairman of Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited (BCSCL) Dr Shahjahan Mahmood on Thursday said that a consultant will be appointed within the next 3-4 weeks for launching the country’s second satellite, following in the footsteps of Bangabandhu -1.

Five new remote-sensing satellites were sent into planned orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province Wednesday.