The UAE Space Agency announced on 28 July 2016 that it is sponsoring a group of UAE students to attend the Senior Space School UK program, run by the physics department at the University of Leicester. The Space Agency’s participation in the program, which is to be held between 30 …
Read More »The Audi Lunar Quattro moon rover is coming to the Bir Zekreet desert in Qatar
Doha, July 27, 2016: The PT Scientists are aiming high – they are shooting for the Moon. By the end of 2017, a group of 30 scientists and engineers wants to send an unmanned rover to the Moon as part of the Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) competition which was proclaimed …
Read More »Current issues in Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management
The geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite belt is a unique location above the earth affording a continuous line-of-sight to satellite uplink and downlink stations. The volume defined by this belt is large, but available slots are limited. During the last fifty years of the space age, this volume has become …
Read More »ALINA rocked Berlin
The Berlin, Germany-based start-up and Google Lunar X-Prize competitor, PTScientists , were invited on the evening of 14 July 2016 to the prestigious Volkswagen Forum, on Unter den Linden in the heart of Berlin, to present the ALINA lander to interested members of the press. Robert Böhme, CEO and Founder of …
Read More »SSTL and Goonhilly announce partnership and a call for lunar orbit payloads
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 …
Read More »Iran to launch two homemade satellites by March 2017
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 …
Read More »Virgin Galactic to resume flight-testing in August
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 …
Read More »At the start of a new space age
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 …
Read More »Iranian Space Agency completes conceptual design of manned spacecraft
The Iranian Space Agency (ISA) completed its conceptual design for a manned spacecraft, including a human-rated space capsule and a launch vehicle, according to a report from Iranian news outlet, Tasnim News Agency. The human-rated space capsule will weigh one ton, and will be launched into space and safely returned …
Read More »First private Mission to the Moon awarded a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Festival of Creativity
PTScientists, the German team of scientists and engineers working with AUDI and the media agency Thjnk behind the first private Mission to the Moon have been awarded a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. As SpaceWatch Middle East reported the other week, the PTScientists team had been …
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