Over the past 12 months, we have heard a lot about it. It is being discussed at conferences, throughout exhibition halls, in the press and throughout the space industry at large. It is NewSpace. But what is it? SpaceWatch Middle East contributing editor Helen Jameson, gives her take on NewSpace; …
Read More »China To Contribute Funds to Egypt’s Space Programme
China has agreed to contribute U.S.$64 million to the Egyptian earth observation satellite programme, EgyptSat, as part of a new cooperation agreement between the two counties signed on March 21, 2017. The funding will be contingent on a feasibility study on the EgyptSat programme, but is thought to be a …
Read More »Calls Grow for the Creation of a Kuwaiti Space Agency
The case for the creation of a Kuwaiti space agency is growing with prominent Kuwaiti scientists advocating that the Gulf kingdom consider the merits of establishing a formal entity to deal with space issues. Quoted in the English-language newspaper Kuwait Times, scientist Dr. Hala Al-Jassar, an Assistant Professor in the …
Read More »Israel’s Netanyahu Visits China, Discusses Cyber, Science, and Technology Cooperation, Investments
Following immediately on the heels of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading a delegation to China, arriving on March 19, 2017, in order to discuss and enhance strategic and economic ties between the two countries. Among the various topics to be discussed between Israel and …
Read More »Saudi Arabia To Contribute To China’s Chang’e-4 Moon Mission
As part of his six week-long tour of Asian countries, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has presided over a major space agreement between his Kingdom and Asia’s leading space power, China. This prominent agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the King Abdulaziz City of Science …
Read More »Stay connected – even on the Moon with #PTScientists, #Vodafone and #missiontothemoon
PTScientists teams up with Vodafone Germany to bring mobile data roaming to the surface of the Moon – and the cost needn’t be astronomical! No need to worry about letting people know that you’ve arrived safely on the Moon – you’ll be able to check in on Facebook and send …
Read More »Successful Launch of Sentinel-2B Adds to EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Constellation
Europe´s Copernicus programme has got its second eye. On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at 02:49 am CET (March 6, 2017, at 10.49 pm local time), a Vega launcher successfully took off from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the satellite developed and built under the industrial leadership of Airbus …
Read More »UAE Aims To Be Global Hub For Science, Knowledge, and Exploration
The UAE is a young country that has fast transitioned into a global hub for producing knowledge. With its ‘Shuttle of Hope’, the country has re-affirmed that nothing is impossible. An interactive session titled ‘Above and Beyond Conventional Topics’ at the Public Diplomacy and Government Communication Forum, in Dubai on …
Read More »Iranian General Claims US Deterred Launch of Space Launch Vehicle
In a bizarre statement that will likely be studied for some time by strategic analysts seeking to understand how deterrence works, a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) publicly announced that threats from the United States forced Iranian leadership to shelve plans to launch a space launch …
Read More »Iran Space Agency Applies for Five Geostationary Orbital Slots for Ka- and Ku-Band Communications Satellites
The Iran Space Agency (ISA) announced on March 1, 2017, that it had applied to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for five geostationary (GEO) orbital slots for Ka- and Ku-band communications satellites. The announcement was made on the ISA website, and provided no details about when it expects to fill …
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