In our digital age, democracy is at risk. Military cyber attackers infiltrate democratic processes and institutions, while totalitarian states stabilise through mass surveillance and censorship. International mass surveillance undermines civil and human rights and erodes trust in digitisation. Knowledge and opinion on the Internet are increasingly fabricated and abused to manipulate …

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd., a worldwide leader in satellite networking technology, solutions and services, announced today being the first to deliver Layer 2 with General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol (GTP) acceleration to provide true Long-Term Evolution networks (LTE) speeds as well as operational efficiency, for large-scale networks. Layer 2 …

Under the auspices of Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Oman’s Minister of Transport and Communications, the National Symposium on “The Peaceful Uses of Space Applications and Technologies for Comprehensive Development” began on Sunday, 30 October, and concluded on Monday on 31 October 2016, in Muscat, Oman. Among those who …

The Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister, Ahmet Arslan, told Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak Online on 23 September 2016 that the government in Ankara is ready to establish the Turkish Space Agency once parliament has debated and approved the draft bill authorising its creation. Mr. Arslan said, “We continue …

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was seized upon by over  400 women when they were given the chance to become the first German female astronaut. On 14 September 2016, more then 70 of these were selected for the next stage of evaluation. Our colleagues at Sputnik news wrote about the inspiring event: The view of Earth from …

SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit organization working to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon, is pleased to announce that they will host the last annual Team Summit for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The Team Summit will take place in Tel Aviv, kicking off on 31 August 2016. For the …

Qatar’s Es’hailSat has announced that it’s Es’hail-2 satellite will now be launched in the third quarter of 2017 rather than in December 2016 as originally planned. There has been no word as to why the launch date for Es’hail-2 has slipped by at least six months. Es’hail-2 will be launched …

Asia is home to three established space powers – Japan, China and India – and there are several new players, some with rising aspirations of reaching the Moon, thus giving way to a new competition in Asia. The fact that six of the ten countries – China, India, Iran, Israel, …

The European Space Agency (ESA) is one of the largest space organisations in the world, and has established many formal and informal links with Middle East governments, agencies, research institutes, and universities. SpaceWatch Middle East re-publishes here the Foreword written by the ESA Director-General, Jan Woerner, to the 2016 European …

Where does the UAE Space Agency go after the Hope Mars Mission is achieved after 2021? Building and sustaining success, and therefore public and political support, is a challenge for all space agencies. The solutions to this challenge, however, can only be found in the United Arab Emirates. ThorGroup’s Chairman …