Middle East

Ankara recently hosted its Turkey-Italy Innovation Day event where space cooperation between the two countries was highlighted by senior officials and corporate executives. Among the agenda items of the event was a common desire to increase space cooperation and satellite development between the two countries.

The head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA), Morteza Barari, has said that Iran is looking to open discussions with Russia about the possibility of sending an Iranian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), according to Iranian press reports.

Algeria and Russia discussed expanding space cooperation and increased development of Algerian space capabilities during a visit to Algiers by a Russian delegation consisting of officials and executives from the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, Russian commercial launch provider Glavkosmos, and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics (VNIIEM) that is responsible for developing sensors for environmental monitoring, meteorological, and other remote sensing satellites.

The head of the Egyptian Space Agency announced that Egypt intends to send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) during a visit to Cairo by a delegation from the UAE Space Agency (UAESA) on 16 October 2019.

TIBA-1, the communications satellite for the Government of Egypt developed by Airbus and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) left the Airbus Defence and Space clean rooms in Toulouse

Following his successful visit to Saudi Arabia, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, on 15-16 October 2019 where UAE-Russian space cooperation featured prominently on the diplomatic agenda.

The UAE Space Agency, UAESA, has announced the details of its National Space Strategy 2030 and National Space Investment Plan, complementing the regulatory and legislative framework of the UAE’s national space sector and in line with the strategic objectives of the Agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Saudi Arabia on 13-15 October 2019 has put space cooperation between the two countries back in the spotlight following the landmark Saudi-Russian space cooperation agreement signed in October 2017.

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Saturday, 12 October 2019, welcomed Hazza Al Mansoori, the UAE's first astronaut, as he returned to the UAE after eight days in space.

Following its brave attempt at a soft landing on the Moon, SpaceIL, the Israeli non-profit organisation that attempted a lunar mission in April this year, was presented with the XPrize Moonshot Award.