Asia is home to three established space powers – Japan, China and India – and there are several new players, some with rising aspirations of reaching the Moon, thus giving way to a new competition in Asia. The fact that six of the ten countries – China, India, Iran, Israel, …

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (GES) announced on 12 July 2016 a new partnership to go beyond Earth’s orbit and provide a new model of low cost, high value, space exploration and science. With the ultimate aim of supporting a Solar System network, the SSTL-GES …

  In our effort to reach as large an audience as possible, and provide our readers with a variety of ways to interact with space activities in the Middle East and North Africa, SpaceWatch Middle East is now on Instagram. If you are already on Instagram then please be sure …

The head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Mohsen Bahrami, announced on 12 July 2016 that Iran will launch at least two indigenously built satellites by March 2017. Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Bahrami said, “At-Sat [also known as AUTSAT-1], Nahid 1, and Dousti are the satellites their design …

One senior Arab space official is once said to have quipped that his country does not need a meteorological satellite since he knows what the weather will be next year, never mind tomorrow. Jokes aside, the Middle East has a more varied climate than many suppose, and has weather variations …

Virgin Galactic Ltd., the commercial space company founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, is set to resume test flights next month in a new spaceship that replaces the one that crashed in a fatal accident two years ago. Aabar Investments of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, owns a 37.8 …

The Israeli government signed a five-year agreement with the fixed commercial satellite communications provider Spacecom Satellite Communications Ltd. worth U.S.$63 million. The agreement is for the provision of commercial satellite communications services to the Israeli government, and has a provision to be extended for another eight-years that would make the …

The European Space Agency (ESA) is one of the largest space organisations in the world, and has established many formal and informal links with Middle East governments, agencies, research institutes, and universities. SpaceWatch Middle East re-publishes here the Foreword written by the ESA Director-General, Jan Woerner, to the 2016 European …

Gilat is to combine its SkyEdge II-c VSATs and CellEdge small cells to meet the rural communications requirements of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC). Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd., the Israel-based provider in satellite networking technology, solutions and services, announced on 5 July 2016 that Dizengoff Ghana Limited, …

Egypt, backed by Syria, has proposed an in-depth discussion on using satellites to counter terrorism at the United Nation’s space body, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The proposal came in the form of a short paper titled “Combating Terrorism using Space Technology,” drafted by Egyptian …