Tag Archives: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Human space exploration has received another significant boost with the successful landing of a Chinese probe on the far side of the moon – a feat that has never before been accomplished. Chinese state media confirmed that the spacecraft had performed a ‘soft landing’ at 10.26am (2.26am GMT) on January 2. The confirmation came after an earlier tweet was deleted from China Daily and various other sources, proclaiming the mission a success.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has established the Saudi Space Agency as part of a leadership shakeup enacted by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in a Royal decree issued late on 27 December 2018.

The Syrian Minister of Communications and Technology, Iyad Khatib, has stated the need for Syria to develop a space programme and launch its first satellite into orbit, the ministry said on 11 December 2018, according to Russian news outlet Sputnik International.

Chinese New Space Internet of Things (IoT) satellite communications company Commsat had seven small satellites launched as a rideshare on board a Long March-2D launch vehicle together with two Earth observation satellites for Saudi Arabia from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on 7 December 2018.

Saudi Arabia's Earth observation satellites, SaudiSat-5A and SaudiSat-5B, were successfully launched on board a Long March 2D launch vehicle on Friday, 7 December 2018, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) in Northwest China at 04:12 UTC.

Bahrain is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on space cooperation with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in early 2019, in order to send Bahraini engineers to India for training in satellite technologies and manufacturing. The MoU, once signed, will further establish ISRO as a major player in Gulf Arab space ambitions.

It has been a busy few weeks in the Middle Eastern satellite and space sector, with developments and activities taking place from Morocco to Iran, and all points in between. The following is a roundup of the regional space and satellite news that was not previously covered in-depth by SpaceWatch.MiddleEast.

The UAE Space Agency will continue selecting astronaut candidates in order to create a national astronaut cadre with the aim of sending Emiratis in to orbit annually, Dr. Mohammed Al Ahbabi, the Director General of the agency, said in an interview with Russian news outlet Sputnik.

Arabsat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, and Forsway Scandinavia AB, a global specialist in providing innovative satellite broadband solutions, have announced the deployment of affordable satellite broadband services across Africa under the new Arabsat Broadband package.

The Virgin Group, the parent company of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit, has withdrawn from all discussions over a U.S.$1 billion investment in its space activities with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) following the alleged torture and murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on 2 October 2018.