Middle East

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.

Avanti Communications, a leading provider of satellite data communications services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has signed a long term bandwidth contract with the Turkish communications satellite operator Turksat.

The second China-Arab States BDS Cooperation Forum was held in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis on 1 April 2019 to discuss measures and initiatives that will increase the use of China's Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) in the Arab world with the aim of elevating cooperation in high-technology between China and the Middle East and North Africa.

The Beresheet lunar lander built and operated by Israeli not-for-profit company SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 22 February 2019, has successfully arrived in Lunar orbit.

Tunisia's Telnet Group and Russian commercial launch provider GK Launch Services signed a contract on 1 April 2019 for the launch of the Challenge One satellite on board a Russian Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle integrated with the Fregat upper stage in 2020.