Middle East

Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, and Deepak Bagla, Managing Director and CEO of Invest India, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 28 July 2018 in New Delhi to establish a bilateral Atrificial Intelligence (AI) Bridge that hopes to create U.S.$20 billion in economic benefits over the next decade.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Oman in February 2018 has resulted in the release of a joint statement by Muscat and New Delhi identifying space as one of several sectors in which the two nations could collaborate.

The Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies – an institution named after the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - has signed a partnership agreement with IronNet Cybersecurity, the U.S.-based cyber advisory firm founded and headed by General Keith Alexander, U.S. Army (retired), the former head of U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency (NSA).

Nestled inside a protective aluminum shell is a silicon disc about the size of a United States half dollar. Inscribed on this disc are microscopic messages from leaders of 73 nations solicited by Thomas Paine, then head of NASA.

Prelaunch preparations are underway to ready KhalifaSat for launch into orbit before the end of the year from a launch facility in Japan aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-IIA satellite launch vehicle, according to the Director-General of the UAE Space Agency.

Israel’s Gilat has been selected by Australian telecommunications giant Telstra to provide its satellite backhaul solutions in order to provide 4G mobile telephone coverage in some of Australia’s most isolated and rural areas.

The UAE Space Agency has signed an agreement with the U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space and with the new UAE Astronaut Programme.

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) is carrying out critical work in terms of inspiring and guiding young people that wish to forge careers in the space industry. This support is provided by a dedicated team working at SGAC that are constantly focused on the delivery of the organisation’s vision. Torsten Kriening spoke to Andrea Jaime, former Executive Director of SGAC to find out more about its importance to our future space sector and its work.

The Bahrain News Agency has reported that the Kingdom is expected to launch its first satellite within the next two years. The country’s Space Agency has been dedicated to assembling an expert team that will oversee its development.

The Yahsat Space Lab at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has announced that the MYSAT-1 Nanosatellite -- the first satellite to be built by students at the lab -- will be launched from the United States in November 2018.