Middle East

The UAE Space Agency is partnering with Krypto Labs - an innovation hub and startup incubator in Abu Dhabi - to identify three Emirati space and satellite startups and then scale their ideas into commercially viable products.

Talia Limited, a leading communication provider serving the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, have announced the completion, and successful deployment, of a new state-of-the-art uplink platform, complete and ready to host High Definition and Standard Definition channel’s secure transmission on Arabsat Badr-7 satellite at 26°E.

Newtec – the Belgian company specialising in designing, developing, and manufacturing equipment and technologies for satellite communications – and Arab Satellite Communications (Arabsat) have signed a new multi-million Euro contract, expanding their long-term partnership.

The satellite industry has long been renowned for its unique ability to deliver connectivity to remote regions of the world, making communications accessible where they previously weren’t available. However, there is a technology that is being trialled by some of the world’s biggest tech companies that promises to enable telecommunications networks with a re-usable platform that can form telecommunications networks where there is little or no access. That is the High Altitude Platform.

The UAE’s Yahsat is creating a joint venture with U.S. company Hughes Network Systems to provide commercial Ka-band satellite broadband services across Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed a cooperation agreement with New Space satellite servicing company Effective Space where IAI will be the prime contractor for Effective Space’s SPACE DRONETM capability in return for IAI securing equity investment for Effective Space.

According to several Bahraini and Russian media sources, the Bahraini and Russian governments are in discussions about possibly sending candidates from the small Persian Gulf island to Russia for astronaut training and launch into Earth orbit.

Firefly is well and truly ignited again. A new formation of the company with solid investors behind it is now paving the way for what has the potential to be a very successful business. International asset management firm, Noosphere Ventures, as lead investor, is set to take Firefly to the next level and beyond with an evolutionary strategy and approach that sees the development two launch vehicles to satisfy the full breadth of the dedicated small satellite launch market and for broader in-space applications as well.

Moroccan media is reporting that the North African country's second high-resolution Earth observation satellite, the Mohammed VI-B, is due to be launched on an Arianespace launch vehicle from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana in November 2018 on either the Vega or Soyuz ST-A Fregat-M satellite launch vehicles.

The Israeli government has made the decision to subsidize Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in designing and building a communications satellite following the decision by Spacecom earlier this year to tap U.S. satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build its AMOS-8 satellite instead of giving the contract to IAI.