Recent developments in international space exploration plans for Mars have inadvertently placed the UAE’s Hope Mars Mission in the forefront, and impact the future of UAE’s space exploration ambitions. ThorGroup’s Chairman and President, Dr. John B. Sheldon, explains. Without even knowing or asking for it, the past several weeks have …
Read More »ActInSpace Hackathon from May 20-21, 2016 in Darmstadt
The second #ActInSpace event will bring together young entrepreneurs, students, business leaders, developers, artists, and jobseekers to take part in a one-and-a-half-day-hackathon on Friday and Saturday, 20-21 May 2016. The aim of the #ActInSpace event is to come up with innovative ways to use space technologies for everyday uses. In …
Read More »Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030: A Golden Opportunity for Space?
ThorGroup’s Chairman and President, Dr. John B. Sheldon, explores the role of space in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 recently announced economic and social reform programme. He argues that Vision 2030 is a golden opportunity for Saudi Arabian space. Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman and Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, …
Read More »Iran’s Simorgh rocket: a failed launch or a successful test?
More details are emerging of Iran’s launch of its Simorgh missile on Tuesday, 19 April, 2016. Most experts are unable to agree whether it was a failed space launch or a successful test of a new booster stage, with a few analysts are now suggesting that the Simorgh launch was …
Read More »China to launch core module of its space station in 2018
China has announced that it intends to launch the core module of its space station by 2018, with the aim of having the manned space-based facility operational by around 2022. A spokesman for the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Mr. Wang Zhongyang, told Xinhua News Agency that the core …
Read More »Iran’s Future Spy Satellites: What Can Be Done?
With the Iranian sanctions regime steadily coming apart, it is only a matter of time before Iran acquires – or even develops on its own – a high-resolution imaging satellite that will revolutionise its military and civil remote-sensing capabilities. Such a development is of particular concern to a number of countries …
Read More »Why Space? Some thoughts by Rick Tumlinson at TEDxESA 2015
At the TEDxESA event on 11 November 2015, 12 stellar speakers took the stage and presented their visions of how science takes us beyond fiction. Space is hard, so why should we go? Let Rick Tumlinson give a clear answer in this TEDxESA talk. He wants to plant a tree …
Read More »There are no borders seen from space…A beautiful picture of the Middle East taken from the ISS
There are no borders seen from space…that such beauty can be discerned from a part of the world – the Cradle of Civilization – where so much tragedy and suffering occurs is perhaps the cruelest of ironies. From space the political unrest in Egypt, the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians …
Read More »United States to start space security dialogues with GCC states
A senior US government official has announced that the United States should like to enter in to space security dialogues with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states in the coming months. Speaking at the 32nd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on 14 April 2016, the US Assistant Secretary of …
Read More »Disrupt Space summit successfully kickstarts the commercial space sector in Europe
The first Disrupt Space summit was held on 7-8 April 2016. Over the course of two days, 200 top entrepreneurs and decision makers from across the world came to Bremen, Germany, to solve global industry and sustainability challenges using space proposed by select international organizations and participated in high-level workshops …
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