BEIJING China launched its seventh Yaogan remote sensing satellite on Dec. 9, barely a year after putting the fourth of the series into orbit. “It will be mainly used for scientific experiment, land resources survey, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention and reduction,” says the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, without mentioning potential military uses.

The Japanese government decided to defer, at least for now, a guarantee extending support of ¥700 billion (US$7.9 billion) in loans to cover Japan Airlines debt. The guarantee, to cover 80% of loans that the airline would raise in its recapitalization effort, would have been included in a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, but will not now be considered before the budget for the following year, according to official leaks to Japanese media.

The Malaysian armed forces are looking for ways to fund an upgrade of their 28 Sikorsky S61 helicopters by the company that maintains them, Airod. The maintenance firm, part of National Aerospace and Defense Industries, says it can improve reliability and performance while lowering running costs by fitting the aircraft with a glass cockpit, composite rotor blades and an improved transmission, all commercially available.