Middle East

The Yahsat Space Lab at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has announced that the MYSAT-1 Nanosatellite — the first satellite to be built by students at the lab — will be launched from the United States in November 2018. This launch not only marks a significant achievement for the …

By Dr. Michael K. Simpson The good, the bad, the great, and the ugly were all on display as the United Nations community gathered in Vienna last month to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first UN space policy conference. Dubbed UNISPACE+50, the celebration commemorated UNISPACE I, a conference that …

Israel’s SpaceIL has announced that it will launch its Moon probe on a SpaceX launch vehicle, to land in February 2019. If successful, the SpaceIL lunar mission will make Israel the fourth-ever country to land on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, U.S., and China. SpaceIL unmanned Tuesday at a …

Sky and Space Global Ltd. (SAS), the New Space satellite communications company that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the potential launch of SAS’s Pearl constellation of satellites. Under the terms of this MOU, …

Gilat and Telesat have embarked on a collaborative project that will see the development of broadband communication technology using low earth orbit (LEO) satellites with an aim to accelerate access to broadband connectivity to those who live out of reach of fibre networks. The joint Canada-Israel innovation project is to …

There is a new sector emerging within the space industry that could utterly revolutionise the satellite sector. On-orbit servicing could be the biggest advancement the industry has seen yet as it could bring with it the capabilities to tackle space debris, to repair operational satellites and even upgrade them, reducing …

Not three, but two launches may be performed from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou until the end of 2018 as one of them is expected to be moved to 2019, says a source at the cosmodrome as quoted by RIA Novosti. ‘One Soyuz launch is likely to be moved …

Arabsat will assist U.S.-based company Cloud Constellation Corporation in providing space-based cloud data storage with the aim of improving data storage security. Arabsat and Cloud Constellation announced last week that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a go-to-market strategy for enterprise and government customers in …

UAE’s Yahsat is looking at providing satellite connectivity for managing networked devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) in a bid to ensure growing revenues in the coming years. The Mubadala Investment Company-owned satellite operator will use this move to enter the mobility and IoT segments, as well as possibly …

Israel’s Gilat has received a U.S.$153.6 million contract from the Peruvian telecommunications investment fund, Fitel, to help build rural telecommunications infrastructure in the Amazonas and Ica regions of Peru and help bridge the rural divide. These two projects were announced last week. The Amazonas region project was awarded for U.S.$108 …