Peter B. de Selding, the former international correspondent of Space News, reports in his new venture SpaceIntelReport.com, that Hong Kong-based company China Trends Holdings Ltd. is considering buying Dubai-based satellite communications company Thuraya for U.S.$201 million. Within days of the announcement by China Trends Holdings Ltd., Thuraya issued a statement …

Geopolitical and sectarian strife across the Middle East region has become an incubator for innovative, sophisticated, and damaging cyber attacks and information campaigns by all sides. Obviously, state actors are highly active and skilled in these kinds of operations, but increasingly so too are non-state actors, such as terrorist organisations. …

TS2 SPACE has recently launched new KA-BAND satellite services. Using the HYLAS 2 spacecraft, the company now provides high- speed data services to Iraq, Syria and Armenia. The HYLAS 2 satellite carries 24 active Ka-band user beams and six gateway beams. The Ka-band spot beams are providing two-way communications services …

The American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) has signed a partnership agreement with the UAE Space Agency, officially putting pen to paper in the federal institution’s head office in Abu Dhabi. A delegation from the university, consisting of Professor Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, its president, Professor Mousa Mohsen, dean …

The Russian news agency TASS reports that the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia is currently building a new high-resolution remote sensing satellite for Egypt called EgyptSat-A. EgyptSat-A is being built as a replacement for EgyptSat-2 that failed in orbit in April 2015 less than a year after its launch. …

AlSat Nano, a UK-Algeria CubeSat mission, has captured its first full colour image following its launch in September 2016. The image was taken by the Open University C3D2 instrument’s wide field camera on 3rd December, 2016, over the Arkhangelsk Oblast region, on the North West coast of Russia. It was …

Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, announced on 8 January 2017 that the Al Rafidain TV channel is now available on Es’hail-1 satellite located at the 25.50 East hotspot covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Al Rafidain is an Iraqi satellite TV channel which showcases Iraqi political, economic, …

ImageSat International (ISI) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) announced a collaboration to leverage BGU’s breakthrough spectroscopy imaging research and develop a high performance, high resolution hyperspectral/ultraspectral imaging system with vast flight- and space-based remote sensing applications. Remote sensing from space or aircraft has a wide range of applications …

The Ethiopian government announced on 3 January 2017 that it intends to build its own medium-sized space launch vehicle (SLV) and develop the capabilities to domestically build satellites. The Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said that it will develop a medium-sized SLV that should have its maiden launch …

The head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA) has claimed that his organisation is in talks with several European countries and Japan, as well as China and Russia, to explore the possibility of space cooperation. Mohsen Barami also claimed that Iran is in discussions with several international satellite operators. “We …