Middle East

Algeria’s space agency, the Agence spatiale algérienne (ASAL), the Algerian space is actively considering building a second communications satellite, Alcomsat-2, to replace Alcomsat-1 at the end of its service life in orbit.

Azerbaijan and Iran have concluded negotiations on space cooperation, to include the Iranian use of Azerbaijani communications satellites and the joint development of a remote sensing satellite, according Azerbaijani media reports.

SpaceX successfully launched its Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission to low-Earth orbit on Monday, 3 December 2018 at 10:34am PST, from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California using a Falcon 9 satellite launch vehicle.

Yahsat, the UAE’s leading commercua satellite communications operator, officially launched its Ka-band satellite broadband service in Brazil in November 2018. The arrival of Yahsat in Brazil will assist in addressing the country’s shortage of reliable Internet connectivity that traditionally relies on terrestrial Internet connectivity.

On Wednesday, 21 November 2018, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall spoke at the opening of the first International VENµS End-Users Conference organized as part of the France-Israel Season 2018. On this occasion, in the presence of Avi Blasberger, Director General of the Israeli Space Agency (ISA), he underlined the innovative nature of CNES and ISA’s joint VENµS mission (Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro Satellite) and its contribution to the Space Climate Observatory (SCO), a CNES initiative supporting efforts to tackle climate change.

Bahrain is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on space cooperation with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in early 2019, in order to send Bahraini engineers to India for training in satellite technologies and manufacturing. The MoU, once signed, will further establish ISRO as a major player in Gulf Arab space ambitions.

XpressSAR Inc. of Arlington, Virginia and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to purchase from IAI a constellation of up to four TecSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites along with associated support services for launch, in-orbit testing, commissioning, and establishing ground operations to control the constellation.

Arianespace has successfully launched the MOHAMMED VI-B Earth observation satellite, developed for the Kingdom of Morocco by a consortium comprising Thales Alenia Space as system prime contractor and Airbus as co-prime. Arianespace’s ninth launch of the year, and the second using Vega in 2018, took place on Tuesday, November 20, …

The United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) has signed a Declaration of Principles with Bahrain's National Space Science Agency (NSSA), and the UAE’s Khalifa University (KU), for the training of the Bahrain Space Team.

It has been a busy few weeks in the Middle Eastern satellite and space sector, with developments and activities taking place from Morocco to Iran, and all points in between. The following is a roundup of the regional space and satellite news that was not previously covered in-depth by SpaceWatch.MiddleEast.