Middle East

Virgin Galactic successfully completed another vital step on its path to commercial service, relocating SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, to its commercial headquarters at Spaceport America’s Gateway to Space building.

Along the sidelines of local and international events, my colleagues and I at the UAE Space Agency meet with a myriad of official delegations and representatives to discuss opportunities for cooperation and the state of the global space sector.

The latest attempt by Iran to indigenously launch one of its domestically-built satellites has failed, the latest in a string of unsuccessful satellite launches due to engineering problems, poor management, sabotage, or a combination of all of these.

The UAE Space Agency launched a "Satellite Challenge" event as part of “UAE Hackathon 2020 - Data for Happiness and Wellbeing.” During UAE Innovation Month.

The space agencies of the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), convened the UAE/Luxembourg Space Investment Forum on 29 January 2020 in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE.

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall was in Israel on 28 January 2020 to speak at the 15th Ilan Ramon International Conference, focused this year on the theme of the next decade in space.

2020 promises to be a big year in space, but not only for the well-known events you keep on hearing about, such as the expected crewed launches from U.S. soil on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner. In the background, thousands of new space entrepreneurs are executing on business plans that take advantage of the tremendous decrease of the costs of accessing space and operating in it. Many of these entrepreneurs have important milestones in 2020.

Virgin Orbit, the California-based small satellite launch company, has signed an agreement with ImageSat International (ISI), a global leader in space-based intelligence solutions, to develop an end-to-end responsive space service offering focused on national security customers.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. and Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. jointly announced on 29 January 2020 that Comtech has agreed to acquire Gilat in a cash and stock transaction for $10.25 per Gilat ordinary share of which 70% will be paid in cash and 30% in Comtech common stock, resulting in an enterprise value of approximately $532.5 million.

Iran is believed to be preparing to launch two satellites from its Imam Khomeini Satellite Launch Centre over the coming days, according to numerous reports in Iranian and international news media.