Middle East Space Roundup: 1-7 January 2023
A summary of all the space news in the Greater Middle East over the past week.
Members of the Kuwait University team with the 3U KuwaitSat-1 CubeSat, Kuwait’s first ever satellite, that was successfully launched by SpaceX on 3 January 2023. Photograph courtesy of KUNA.
The following are the major space developments in the Greater Middle East region tracked by Middle East Space Monitor over the past week:
1 January 2023
Bernard Roux, the CEO of Thales UAE encourages the UAE to consider developing a quantum communication satellite, in Gulf News.
EROS-C3, the latest high-resolution Earth observation satellite operated by Israel’s ImageSat International, successfully entered its intended orbit after being launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 30 December 2022. EROS-C3 was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (satellite bus) and Elbit Space Systems (camera payload) and is based on the IAI OPTSAT 3000 series of Earth observation satellites that includes the Ofeq reconnaissance satellites operated by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. In SpaceWatch.Global.
2 January 2023
The Turkish Minister for Industry and Technology, Mustafa Varank, stated that the first astronaut from Türkiye will be sent to the International Space Station in the second half 2023. The astronaut, who has yet to be identified, will be trained and launched up to the ISS by Axiom Space, Hürriyet Daily News.
3 January 2023
Yahsat, the UAE’s commercial satellite communications provider, highlighted the role of its Thuraya XT-LITE satellite phone in rescuing and saving the lives of seven Filipino fishermen after their vessel sunk in turbulent South China Sea waters in November 2022. In The Khaleej Times.
KuwaitSat-1 was successfully launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, Florida, along with over 100 rideshare nanosatellites and Cubesats. Built by Kuwaiti students and faculty at Kuwait University, KuwaitSat-1 is the first ever satellite built by Kuwaitis in Kuwait. A 2U Cubesat, KuwaitSat-1 contains a camera for attitude determination and control. After the launch it was announced that KuwaitSat-2 is already being prepared. In Middle East Space Monitor.
On the same SpaceX rideshare launch on 3 January 2023 were two other satellites from the region. First, a quantum communications nanosatellite built by a team from Israel’s Tel Aviv University was successfully launched. Second, a nanosatellite with several scientific payloads to study the Sun, X-ray emissions, and space weather and built by the UAE’s University of Sharjah, called SharjahSat-1, was also successfully launched. In The Times of Israel and The National.
The Tel Aviv University team that build the quantum communications nanosatellite successfully launched by SpaceX on 3 January 2023. Photograph courtesy of Tel Aviv University.
The head of Iran’s Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Peyman Jebelli, publicly complained about the effects of Western sanctions on IRIB’s ability to carry out television broadcasts on Western satellites. Mr. Jebelli complained that the West “cannot even tolerate the existence of this organization and this media [IRIB] on satellites.” In Mehr News Agency.
In his annual announcement of the UAE’s yearly priorities, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, stated that 2023 will see the launch of the MBZSat high-resolution Earth observation satellite and the second UAE astronaut mission with Sultan Al Neyadi spending six months on board the International Space Station. In the Globe Echo.
5 January 2022
Iranian space companies SAHAB and SpaceOmid signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos. The MoU allows for Iran and Russia to explore and develop space launch services between the two countries. In Middle East Monitor and Middle East Space Monitor.
Iranian media reported that Iran’s Supreme Space Council had met earlier in the week and that the Iran Space Agency’s ten-year strategic plan was approved. Details are scant but it is understood that the main thrust of the plan is to establish Iran as the regional hub for the development of advanced space technologies and launch services. At the same meeting, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi, the chair of the Supreme Space Council, lauded Iran’s space achievements in the face of harsh Western sanctions. In Mehr News Agency and Middle East Space Monitor.
Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raeisi.
One programmatic detail that did emerge from the meeting of Iran’s Supreme Space Council is the development of the country’s Internet of Things (IoT) satellite constellation that is to be named after Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020. The IoT satellite constellation is to be named the Martyr Soleimani Constellation and will serve as an infrastructural backbone for Iran’s economy, In Mehr News Agency and Middle East Space Monitor.
6 January 2023
The Rashid Rover, built by the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and launched on board Japan’s iSpace Hakuto-R lunar lander by SpaceX in mid-December 2022, has now traveled 1.24 million kilometres, and will reach 1.4 million kilometres distance from Earth by 20 January. The Hakuto-R lander is expected to reach the Moon in April 2023, upon which the Rashid Rover will begin its operations on the lunar surface. In The National.
7 January 2023
Virgin Orbit announced that all systems are go for an expected launch of several small satellite payloads on Monday, 9 January 2023, from Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Among the satellites expected to by launches is Oman’s first ever satellite, called Aman, a 3U Earth observation Cubesat developed between Polish companies SatRevolution and TUATARA and Oman’s emerging technology incubator ETCO. In SatNews.
Be sure to catch up with space activities in the region in the next edition of Middle East Space Monitor’s space roundup!