Middle East Space Roundup: 12-18 March 2023
A summary of all the space news in the Greater Middle East over the past week, powered by AzurX
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The following are the major space developments in the Greater Middle East region tracked by Middle East Space Monitor over the past week:
12 March 2023
The first satellite to be wholly made in Bahrain by Bahrainis will be named Al Munther, Arabic for ‘the harbinger of good news’, and is approximately 35 percent completed, according to Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s national security advisor. Al Munther is an Earth observation Cubesat that will take images of Bahrain and its surrounding waters and is expected to be launched by the end of 2023.
Sudan and Russia discuss exchanging satellite imagery data for combatting terrorism, according to Russian media outlet Sputnik International. Sudan’s Ambassador to Russia, Hassan Mohammed Elghazali Eltijani Sirraj, said that during a bilateral between Sudan’s foreign minister and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Khartoum the Sudanese expressed interest in the exchange of satellite imagery for security purposes. While Russia has a range of Earth observation satellites, Sudan operates only one satellite, the Sudan Remote Sensing Satellite (SRSS) built by China’s Shenzhen DFH and launched by China in November 2019.
13 March 2023
Helios, the Israeli space resources company developing processes to extract oxygen from lunar resources, claims to have also developed a method to render steel-making more environmentally friendly. According to The Times of Israel, Helios has developed a process that replaces carbon with sodium in an early stage of making steel drastically reducing the energy required to make steel as well as carbon emissions. Currently, making one ton of steel creates two tons of carbon emissions.
14 March 2023
China successfully launches Egypt’s Horus-2 Earth observation satellite, only several weeks after launching Horus-1. The Horus-1 and -2 satellites are apparently co-developed by an Egyptian team from the country’s National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) and from China’s Shenzhen DFH satellite manufacturing company. Both satellite are now in the same Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit at 496 kilometres altitude. According to the head of the Egyptian Space Agency, the Horus Earth observation satellites help meet the requirements of Egypt’s Vision 2023 for Sustainable Development and help monitor crops and other resource management tasks. The two satellites are part of a Sino-Egyptian strategic partnership that will eventually see similar satellites being build in facilities in Egypt supplied and built by China.
15 March 2023
The Saudi Space Commission announced that 11 experiments will be conducted by Saudi astronauts on their upcoming International Space Station mission. The experiments will range from medical tests on the effects of spaceflight on the human body through to neuroscience experiments. One unique experiment will involve testing a process to create artificial rain, a technology that will not only be of importance for Saudi Arabia, where much of the country experiences an arid climate, but also for future human settlements on the Moon and Mars.
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16 March 2023
Türkiye is understood to be using its Türksat communication satellites for command and control of Bayraktar drones, according to a Greek media report. The Pentapostagma newspaper reports that the Turks are using a new version of the Bayraktar TB-2 drone that is controlled via satellite communications instead of from the ground with older versions. The report claims that the new satellite-controlled drones are being used in Libya. The report further claims these Bayraktar TB-2 drones are using the TURKSAT-4B communications satellite.
UAE executives from EDGE Group are in detailed talks with Turkish companies to acquire sensitive defence electronics systems for electronic intelligence, satellite navigation jamming, and signals intelligence, according to French publication Intelligence Online. The publication reports that executives from EDGE, as well as from the UAE’s Tawazun acquisition funding body, are targeting Turkish defence electronics companies for investments and technology transfers. Intelligence Online claims that Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) subsidiary CTech is of interest for its satellite technology, as is Space and Defence Technologies (SDT) for its electronic warfare capabilities. During IDEX 2023 in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of March, Tawazun signed a letter of intent with Turkish company Tualcom for the provision of satellite navigation jamming and electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering systems.
17 March 2023
UAE’s Yahsat signs agreement with Comtech to develop advanced location tracking solutions (LTS) for its Thuraya-4 Next Generation Satellite (NGS). Comtech will deliver its LTS platforms and user terminals for end-users of the Thuraya-4 NGS that is expected to be launched in late 2023 and operational by the first half of 2024. The LTS platform will have four variants including personnel, vehicular, maritime, and aeronautical terminals. It will give users command, control, and situational awareness capabilities for mobile and network connected headquarters.
Students at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus are to build a Cubesat for space science research as part of a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational effort in partnership with UAE company EduTech4Space. The Cubsesat, to be called MAHASAT, will be built by students under the supervision of Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, former director of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Satellite Centre, and the scientist behind India’s successful Moon and Mars missions.
The UAE Space Agency hosts a COP 28 workshop in Dubai to coordinate all climate-themed space activities in the UAE among all government stakeholders and companies in the run-up to the COP 28 Summit to be held in Dubai at the end of 2023. Called the “Lift-Off to 1.5C” workshop, it was attended by Sarah Al Amiri, the UAE Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, and by Salem Butti Al Qubaisi, the Director General of the UAE Space Agency. Among the other attendees are Bayanat, Farmin, and 4 Earth Intelligence (4EI).
Djiboutian students at the Centre Spatial Universitaire de Montpellier (CSUM) in France have made progress in the construction of DJIBOUTI-1A, Djibouti’s first satellite, as it passes a critical vibration test. DJIBOUTI-1A is an Earth observation nanosatellite that is expected to be launched as a rideshare on board a SpaceX Falcon-9 launch vehicle on 10 June 2023. The satellite will monitor water resources for the Djiboutian government.
18 March 2023
Azerbaijan’s Azercosmos and Israel’s Spacecom sign a satellite communications cooperation agreement that will allow Spacecom to expand its coverage to Africa via Azercosmos’ communication satellites. The agreement also covers cooperation to jointly develop satellite services for mobile communications.
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The UAE and China are to develop an Abu Dhabi-based space technology centre where Emirati and Chinese students and researchers can collaborate on space telescopes, remote sensing satellites, and deep space exploration missions, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. The centre, to be built at the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park near Khalifa Port in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is a joint undertaking involving the UAE University’s National Space Science and Technology Centre (NSSTC), Chinese space resources company Origin Space, and the University of Hong Kong’s Laboratory for Space Research. The three parties have so far committed $4.3 million to the centre
Be sure to catch up with space activities in the region in the next edition of Middle East Space Monitor’s space roundup!