Middle East

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, has launched the ‘Hope Generation’ initiative to help schools encourage students to study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, STEM, fields and increase their curiosity about space science and exploration.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala is set to create a start-up ecosystem in Abu Dhabi that will attract New Space and other emerging technology companies to the Gulf Arab state.

The France-United Arab Emirates Strategic Dialogue convened for its 11th session in Paris on 16 April 2019.

"If at first you don’t succeed, you try again," said newly reelected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the Beresheet (Hebrew for Genesis) lunar lander failed to make a soft landing on the Moon's surface on 11 April 2019.

French online national security news publication Intelligence Online is reporting that the recently created Saudi Space Agency is beginning to take shape under the leadership of Prince Sultan Bin Salman, the son of the reigning King Salman, half-brother of the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and first Saudi astronaut.

National Geographic today announced a four-year partnership with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, to document the UAE’s journey into space. In a four-part documentary series, National Geographic will present to the world the UAE’s rise into space, its achievements and ambitions.

The UAE Space Agency and Krypto Labs have announced the two winning teams of the GeoTech Innovation Programme. The winners were awarded funding of AED100,000 (U.S.$27,250.00) in cash and AED500,000 (U.S.$136,125.00) in kind, as well as the opportunity to accelerate and transform their innovative ideas into commercially viable and scalable market-ready products and services.

The UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced that it has selected Hazzaa Al Mansoori as the prime astronaut and Sultan Al Neyadi as the backup astronaut for the International Space Station (ISS) mission.

The Beresheet Moon lander, developed by Israeli not-for-profit company SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, has failed in its bid to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. The spacecraft is the first commercial mission to reach the Moon. Communication was lost with Beresheet at approximately 489 feet above the lunar surface and it made its hard landing at 3.25pm EDT.

SpaceX is celebrating this morning after its Falcon heavy rocket launched the Arabsat 6-A communications satellite and also achieved a triple rocket landing in the process.