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It has been a busy few weeks in the Middle Eastern satellite and space sector, with developments and activities taking place from Morocco to Iran, and all points in between. The following is a roundup of the regional space and satellite news that was not previously covered in-depth by SpaceWatch.MiddleEast.

SpaceX successfully launched the Es’hail-2 satellite for Qatar’s Es’hailsat on Thursday, 15 November 2018, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States. Liftoff occurred at 3:46 p.m. EST, or 20:46 UTC, and the satellite was deployed to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) about 32 minutes after launch.

Uzbekistan is discussing the joint development, manufacture, and operation of a communications satellite with Russia and Kazakhstan, according to media reports in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

A far-reaching in-depth study, led by Nielsen, of television reception throughout Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, has positioned Eutelsat as satellite market leader within these countries. The face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,000 households in Nigeria, 2,000 in Cameroun and 2,000 in Ivory Coast, representative of the population of the geographical area surveyed.

According to the 21st edition of its report Satellites to be Built and Launched over the Next 10 Years, Euroconsult anticipates that 3,330 satellites with a mass over 50 kg will be launched on average each year by 2027 for government agencies and commercial organizations worldwide.

Bangladesh has been given full control of its Bangabandhu-1 communications satellite after a handover ceremony where the satellite’s French manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, provided the ‘Transfer of Title’ documents to Bangladeshi officials.

Qatar’s Es’hailsat is expected to have its Es’hail-2 communications satellite launched on Thursday, 15 November 2018, on board a SpaceX Falcon-9 satellite launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Thaicom Public Company Limited (THCOM), Thailand’s first satellite operator, reported its operating results for the third quarter of 2018, posting a consolidated net profit of Baht 104 million (approximately U.S.$3.15 million), improved by 59.6% from Q3/2017, due mainly to the decrease of depreciation expense through the satellite assets impairment recognized in Q4/2017, and the decrease of selling and administration expenses.

Türksat has made headway in the adaptation of cutting-edge broadcasting technologies by conducting an Ultra HD 8K (Super High-Vision) test broadcast - currently the state-of-art in broadcasting technology - through the Türksat-4B communication satellite located at its 50 degrees East Geostationary orbital (GEO) location.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have re-elected Houlin Zhao of China as ITU Secretary-General during the Union's 20th Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-18) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.