Thuraya Telecommunications Company announced on October 10, 2017, the signing of a partnership with satellite communications company, Gulfsat at the ongoing OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessels) event in Kuwait. This strategic alliance will enable Gulfsat to launch data services in Kuwait. The partnership allows the companies to combine interests and increase …
Read More »Arabsat Reaching 78% Of Gulf Cooperation Council Households, Report Finds
A recent analysis by Frost & Sullivan, a global research and consulting company, finds that Arabsat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, reaches 86% of satellite TV households in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and nearly 78% in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, KSA, …
Read More »#SWMEThemes: China’s Space Silk Road and the Middle East, Part One
Centuries ago, China and Europe were connected by a number of trade routes across the Eurasian landmass and the Indian Ocean that were later known as the Silk Road. These Silk Roads not only connected the ancient Chinese Middle Kingdom and Medieval Europe, but also connected regions of Eurasia that …
Read More »#SWMEThemes: Space Resources and International Space Law: A Skeptical View
The third part of our #SWMEThemes on the Middle East and Space Resources is an interview with space law attorney Michael J. Listner of Space Law and Policy Solutions, and author and publisher of space law and policy briefing-letter The Précis. Michael – a friend of SpaceWatch Middle East –provides readers with …
Read More »SSTL’s CARBONITE-1 Demonstrates Video From Orbit Capability, Showing Stunning Kuwait and UAE Video
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has released videos from orbit taken by CARBONITE-1, a technology demonstration satellite launched to demonstrate rapid build techniques and to test a telescope and video camera, both developed using innovative commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. CARBONITE-1 was designed and funded by SSTL and the mission has fulfilled …
Read More »A Deadly Twist in Iran’s ‘Soft War’? Iranian satellite TV mogul murdered in Istanbul
A prominent Iranian satellite television network owner living in exile was gunned down along with his Kuwaiti business partner on an Istanbul street on the evening of April 29, 2017. Saeed Karimian, a 45-year old Iranian-British citizen living in Istanbul, and his as yet unnamed Kuwaiti business associate, were driving …
Read More »Oman Hosts 40th Session of Arabsat General Assembly Meeting in Muscat
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization – Arabsat – is holding its Board of Directors meeting in, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, on April 11-12, 2017 , followed by the General Assembly meeting with the attendance of their excellencies the Arab ministers of telecommunications and the heads of Arab delegations. Engineer Khalid …
Read More »Kuwait’s GulfSat and Eutelsat Welcome Kuwait TV’s Al-Qurain TV In HD To EUTELSAT-8 West B Satellite
Kuwait TV, the official Kuwaiti state broadcaster and part of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information, announced at CABSAT 2017 in Dubai that the new Al-Qurain TV channel has launched in its free-to-air HD platform hosted on the EUTELSAT 8 West B satellite. The capacity used by Kuwait TV is provided …
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 »Challenges and Opportunities for a Kuwaiti Space Programme, Part II
Several weeks ago SpaceWatch Middle East contributor Ghanim Alotaibi, a Kuwaiti engineer and Space Generation Advisory Council member, wrote of the need for a Kuwaiti space programme, but that such an endeavor faces several challenges, starting with the challenge of ‘Kuwaitisation’. This week, Ghanim address the other three challenges Kuwaiti leaders will …
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