Space

AlSat Nano, a UK-Algeria CubeSat mission, has captured its first full colour image following its launch in September 2016. The image was taken by the Open University C3D2 instrument’s wide field camera on 3rd December, 2016, over the Arkhangelsk Oblast region, on the North West coast of Russia. It was …

Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, announced on 8 January 2017 that the Al Rafidain TV channel is now available on Es’hail-1 satellite located at the 25.50 East hotspot covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Al Rafidain is an Iraqi satellite TV channel which showcases Iraqi political, economic, …

ImageSat International (ISI) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) announced a collaboration to leverage BGU’s breakthrough spectroscopy imaging research and develop a high performance, high resolution hyperspectral/ultraspectral imaging system with vast flight- and space-based remote sensing applications. Remote sensing from space or aircraft has a wide range of applications …

As part of the new partnership between SpaceWatch Middle East and The Précis, a quarterly space law and policy report produced by Space Law & Policy Solutions, run by the prominent space lawyer and friend of SpaceWatch Middle East, Michael J. Listner, SpaceWatch Middle East is occasionally publishing select articles from The Précis. Reproduced here are …

CAN BEER BE BREWED ON THE MOON? CAN BUILDINGS BE MADE OF LUNAR DUST? Twenty-five teams shortlisted from more than 3000 entries. Winners to send experiments aboard the TeamIndus Spacecraft to the Moon in 2017 An experiment that seeks to study photosynthesis on the Moon; another that will explore water recycling in space …

The Ethiopian government announced on 3 January 2017 that it intends to build its own medium-sized space launch vehicle (SLV) and develop the capabilities to domestically build satellites. The Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said that it will develop a medium-sized SLV that should have its maiden launch …

The head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA) has claimed that his organisation is in talks with several European countries and Japan, as well as China and Russia, to explore the possibility of space cooperation. Mohsen Barami also claimed that Iran is in discussions with several international satellite operators. “We …

The Part-Time Scientists are one of five teams left competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge. Their goal is to reach the Moon by 2017, land their rover safely on the surface, have it drive 500 meters and send images back to Earth. There’s not much room in a space …

SpaceX announced on 2 January 2017 that it had identified the cause of the catastrophic explosion of its Falcon-9 space launch vehicle (SLV) containing Israeli company Spacecom’s AMOS-6 communications satellite on 1 September 2016. SpaceX and U.S. government and space industry experts believe that the explosion occurred due to the …

In the latest SpaceWatch Middle East interview series, Torsten Kriening speaks to Rahul Narayan of TeamIndus. They discuss the work of the World Economic Forum, ‘Future of Space Technologies’ Council. On 13-14 November 2016 the Annual Meeting for the Global Future Councils took place in Dubai, UAE. Once a year members …