Middle East Space Roundup: 26 March to 1 April 2023
A summary of all the space news in the Greater Middle East over the past week, powered by AzurX
The following are the major space developments in the Greater Middle East region tracked by Middle East Space Monitor over the past week:
26 March 2023
British newspaper The Guardian has an interesting story about how the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are increasingly using the International Space Station to conduct research on human cells and developing new drugs and therapies for a variety of health conditions. Among the companies interviewed for the piece are Israel’s SpacePharma. The takeaway from the story:
It is the absence of gravity that has long made space such an attractive playground for teasing apart some of biology’s intricacies. The pull of the Earth’s gravitational field can mask some of the ways in which cells communicate, making it harder to understand why they behave as they do. Gravity makes it far more complex to keep stem cells in their purest and most useful state for extended periods, constantly nudging them and encouraging them to develop. It also makes it much more difficult for scientists to study the complex crystal structures of key proteins, for example those linked to cancer, viruses, genetic disorders and heart disease. Growing these fragile crystals from scratch is crucial for analysing how a tumour or a virus evolves, or detecting little pockets where a new drug could sit. But when they are grown on Earth, gravity tugs at them, obscuring how they really look.
27 March 2023
The Hakuto-R lunar lander, the first commercial lander to go to the Moon and built and operated by Japan’s ispace, sends back a stunning photograph of the Moon after successfully entering lunar orbit (see photograph above). Among the payloads on board the Hakuto-R lander is the UAE’s Rashid lunar rover built by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai. The Hakuto-R is expected to land on the Moon’s surface in late April 2023.
The United States Space Force has received requests for advice from several Middle East partner nations, according to Colonel Chris Putman, U.S. Space Force, Commander of United Space Force Central headquartered at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and reported in Space News. Speaking at an event in the United States, Colonel Putman said that he has been asked by several countries in the region that are friendly to the United States how they can set up their own space commands and forces. Colonel Putman also revealed that officers from the Royal Saudi Air and Space Force have taken the U.S Space Force’s unclassified Space 100 course that teaches space fundamentals such as orbital dynamics and satellite functions. It is known that Saudi Arabia is seeking to create its own version of a space command, and it has also been publicly reported that Israel, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates have similar interests. Colonel Putman notes that cooperating with friendly Middle East countries on military space issues becomes more complicated beyond the unclassified Space 100 course since most information regarding military space operations is so highly classified. Colonel Putman suggests that a commercial solution for training might solve this challenge:
“So going forward, so that we can actually have fruitful conversations and work together, the answer may rely on the commercial side…If we buy commercial, off the shelf systems with our partners, we avoid a lot of those security classifications - roadblocks that have inhibited us in the past. Saudi Arabia is just one example.”
28 March 2023
Israel launches its Ofek-13 high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reconnaissance satellite on board a Shavit satellite launch vehicle from the Palmachim Air Base in Israel at 02:10 am local time. Several hours after the launch the Israeli Ministry of Defense reported that Ofek-13 had successfully entered its intended orbit, that the satellite is transmitting data, and that its operators have successfully completed a number of on-orbit inspections. Ofek-13 will undergo further on-orbit tests before being handed over to the Israel Defense Force’s Military Intelligence Directorate and day-to-day control by the IDF’s imagery intelligence outfit Unit 9900. Ofek-13 was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) under the supervision of the Israeli MoD’s Space and Satellite Directorate along with technical input from Unit 9900.
Armenia’s Minister of High-Tech Industry, Robert Khachatryan, meets with a delegation led by the United States Ambassador to Armenia, Kristina Kvien. The two sides discussed a range of issues in science, technology, and industry to include possible cooperation in space technologies.
Prominent family business Ajlan & Bros. in Saudi Arabia are reportedly in discussions with U.S.-sanctioned defence company Norinco in China, according to Intelligence Online. Until recently Scopa Industries, a subsidiary of Ajlan & Bros., was staffed by U.S. consultants who were tasked with handling military offset programmes in the Kingdom. These consultants were dismissed in February 2023 and another Ajlan & Bros. subsidiary, TAL, is now in discussions with Chinese company Norinco about the acquisition of communications and Earth observation satellites. This move is apparently part of an Ajlan & Bros. strategy to strengthen its defence industry credentials in Saudi Arabia by partnering with Norinco. Intelligence Online further reports that the vice-president of Ajlan & Bros., Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Ajlan, visited China in February 2023 to advance these discussions. Alan & Bros. subsidiary TAL is also in discussions with Chinese companies Hikvision for video surveillance technologies and with Zhongtian Feilong, a manufacturer of drones. Meanwhile, the U.S. consultants who were dismissed from Scopa Industries have submitted a report to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on what they know about Alan & Bros. dealings with sanctioned companies in China and Russia through its subsidiaries.
Tactical Report claims that Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production is in discussions with South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) for the acquisition of a custom-built Compact Advanced Satellite 500 (CAS-500) high-resolution Earth observation satellite. Talks between the Egyptians and KAI have been reportedly taking place since July 2022, and among the issues discussed include the placement of engineers from the Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) in KAI facilities to participate in the construction of the 0.5 meter resolution optical satellite, as well as the incorporation of anti-jamming technology into the capability. If the two sides agree terms and sign contracts, then the satellite will be launched at a future date for Egypt from South Korea on board a Korean launch vehicle.
South Korea business newspaper Aju Business Daily reports that the CEO of Hanwha Systems, Eoh Seong-cheol, claims that the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has expressed interest in the South Korean defence systems company’s proposed low-Earth orbit military satellite communications constellation. "The UAE president has also recently shown interest in our defense system at an international exhibition,"said Eoh at a company shareholders meeting, and referring to a meeting with MBZ at the IDEX 2023 defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi in late February 2023. The proposed LEO military satellite communications aims to provide secure and low-latency communications for the South Korean military and its allies.
29 March 2023
E-Space, the French-American satellite communications company, is to develop satellite-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with the UAE’s telecommunications giant e&, formerly known as Etisalat. The two companies intend to co-develop cloud-based IoT solutions using e&’s telecommunications infrastructure and E-Space-s low-Earth orbit satellite communications constellation.
30 March 2023
A senior U.S. NASA scientist, astrophysicist Amber Straughn, is instructed to cancel an official trip to Israel amidst political tensions surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms. Dr. Straugh says that her planned trip to Israel was to include a keynote talk at the Bar Ilan University but the U.S. Department of State instructed her to cancel the trip. Meanwhile, NASA administrator Senator Bill Nelson met with Israel’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Ofir Akunis, at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on 28 March 2023 to discuss U.S.-Israeli space cooperation but seemingly unaffected by the roiling political situation.
U.S. defence and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is giving Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) a run for its money in the competition to supply Vietnam with a high-resolution Earth observation satellite, according to online publication Intelligence Online. According to the French publication, a team of Lockheed Martin executives visited Vietnam as part of a large U.S. trade delegation to the Southeast Asian country and met with senior officials at the Vietnamese defence ministry as well at the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to discuss VNREDSAT-2, an Earth observation satellite, and VINASAT, the country’s communication satellites. Since the bid by France’s Airbus and Thales Alenia Space has essentially been rejected due to price, IAI has been seen as the preferred bidder for the VNREDSAT-2 contract but this has been overshadowed by a corruption scandal involving a prominent Vietnamese businesswoman who specialises in Vietnamese-Israeli business deals. According to Intelligence Online, the U.S. government may invoke its International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to prevent IAI from exporting an Earth observation satellite to Vietnam should it be reveals that the company engaged in bribery in Vietnam.
31 March 2023
Blaine Curcio at The China Space Monitor Substack provides more details about the Sino-Egyptian cooperation on the two Horus Earth observation satellites launched in February and March 2023. Curcio writes:
…the Egyptian angle in the broader development of their space economy is thus. It is still not 100% clear whether Horus-1 and Horus-2 were built in China or Egypt, however the most likely scenario (imho) is Chinese-built, possibly integrating Egyptian know-how and certainly transferring know-how to the Egyptians, possibly via things like digital twinning. Moving forward, these two satellites, and probably future Egyptian-built ones, might create the foundation for an Egyptian space industrial base, partly built and financed by China.
The two astronauts from Saudi Arabia selected to go to the International Space Station complete their training and are ready for their upcoming 12 May 2023 mission. Rayyanah Barnawi, who will be the first ever Arab and Saudi woman to go to space, and Ali Al Qarni completed their training for the range of scientific experiments they will conduct during their ten-day stay on the ISS. The two Saudi astronauts will be part of an Axiom Space four-crew mission, called AX-2, that will be launched in a SpaceX Dragon crewed capsule on board a Falcon-9 space launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
UAE scientists reveal stunning map of Mars made up of composite images taken by the Emirati Mars Mission Hope probe over one Martian year, or two Earth years. The scientists from New York University Abu Dhabi and the UAE Centre for Space Science selected over 3,000 images taken by the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) and placed them together to create a highly-detailed all colour map of the Martian surface that reveals topographical features in fine detail.
1 April 2023
Arab Space Cooperation Group remote sensing satellite ‘813’ will be launched in late 2024 according to Ali Al Shehhi, Director of the National Center for Space Science and Technology (NCSST) at the UAE University in Al Ain, UAE. Satellite 813 is a collaborative effort involving scientists and engineers from ten Arab countries that include the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, and Egypt.
The UAE’s first astronaut, Hazzaa Al Mansoori, will be the ground control increment lead for Expedition 69 of the International Space Station, becoming the first Arab to ever assume he position. Al Mansoori, who spent about a week on the ISS in 2019 and was the UAE’s first ever astronaut was Sultan Al Neyadi’s backup until the latter was launched to the space station about a month ago. As increment lead Al Mansoori will be responsible for the integration and execution of ISS crew activities throughout Expedition 69 and, among other things, involves developing, managing, implementing, and communicating mission integration procedures.
Be sure to catch up with space activities in the region in the next edition of Middle East Space Monitor’s space roundup!
