Middle East

On 22 April 2020 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) successfully launched a small satellite – the Noor-1 (Farsi for ‘Light’) – on a previously unseen satellite launch vehicle called the Qased. Over the course of this week SpaceWatch.Global is running a series of perspectives on the strategic, political, and geopolitical …

On 22 April 2020 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) successfully launched a small satellite – the Noor-1 (Farsi for ‘Light’) – on a previously unseen satellite launch vehicle called the Qased. Over the course of this week SpaceWatch.Global is running a series of perspectives on the strategic, political, and geopolitical …

ST Engineering iDirect, a company of ST Engineering North America, and its long-term partner, Spacecom, operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, announced the successful demonstration of VSAT return capabilities on AMOS-17. The demonstration resulted in an exceptionally wide return link for a small VSAT of 40Mbps using the iDirect iQ …

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 …

Thuraya, the Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) subsidiary of the UAE-based global satellite company, Yahsat, and SCOTTY Group, a developer of beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) satellite communication solutions based in Austria, announced on 30 April 2020 that they have secured line-fit offerability for the Thuraya Aero mobile connectivity solution on Airbus H145 and …

By Sina Azodi The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) successful launch of the Noor (Light) satellite into space is a significant moment at a time when many countries, including Iran, are still grappling with the deadly COVID-19 virus. It marks a military advancement, an audacious move in the diplomatic poker …

The UAE Ministry of Education (MoE) announced on 29 April 2020 that it is collaborating with Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) to extend the reach of its Remote Schooling initiative for students seeking to access e-learning platforms during the current COVID-19 situation. As part of the collaboration, Yahsat will …

The Emirates News Agency reports that the UAE’s Emirates Mars Mission is getting excellent press coverage in the region. A gargantuan mission calls for an extraordinary vision, Gulf Today wrote in an editorial on 27 April 2020, adding that the UAE is blessed with a leadership that believes the journey …

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has unveiled the existence of its own Space Command following the successful launch of the Noor-1 Earth observation satellite on 22 April 2020 (reported by SpaceWatch.Global here). After the launch of Noor-1 IRGC commanders appeared in Iranian media extolling their achievements and speaking about …

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had launched a military satellite on the morning (Iranian time) of 22 April 2020 on board a previously unknown satellite launch vehicle the IRGC calls Qassed. The military satellite, called Noor (also spelled ‘Nur’ and ‘Nour’ – Farsi for ‘Light’), could …