Page 65 - SAMENA Trends - June-August 2021

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Kuwait’s First Satellite Launched into Space

Bassam Al-Feeli, Founder and General Manager of Orbital Space, and ground station will be located at Dubai Digital Park, Dubai
said that QMR-KWT, an abbreviation of “Moon of Kuwait” has took Silicon Oasis as part of the collaboration agreement between
off into space on Wednesday aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Orbital Space and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre
Canaveral Air Force Station in the State of Florida. In a statement (MBRSC) under the umbrella of MBRSC Space Ventures for
to the press, Feeli said QMR-KWT is a 1U CubeSat and will be startups. Established in August 2018, Orbital Space is the first
Kuwait’s first satellite. “Our goal is to make space accessible to company in the Arab World to provide access to space through
all, and as a startup, we are excited to work with other startups CubeSat technology. Orbital Space offers services to design,
to meet our mutual objectives,” Feeli said. “Once in space, QMR- build, test and operate CubeSats to students and amateurs, to
KWT will be the outcome of efforts from all young companies help them gain the know-how to build a satellite, and also support
including Orbital Space, EnduroSat, D-Orbit, and even SpaceX, them if they want to do a space-related experiment.
which is less than 20 years old company,” he added. “QMR-KWT’s
functional testing has been completed at EnduroSat facilities
and it has been integrated with ION Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit’s
orbital transportation vehicle, as part of the plan to put it in orbit.
The Falcon 9 mission dubbed Transporter-2 rideshare mission
will carry several dozens of satellites from the surface of the
earth to outer space at around 500 km above sea level in a sun
synchronous orbit.” Meanwhile, according to Nada Al-Shammari,
Director of Educational Programs at Orbital Space, QMR KWT
is an educational space mission and is already inspiring and
empowering students to become the future professionals in the
space sector. The main education mission of QMR KWT is ‘Code
in Space’, added Shammari. “Code in Space is an opportunity for
students to develop and test new software solutions by writing
software code to be uploaded and executed on the satellite’s
onboard computer, for the first time ever. We have been receiving
proposals from students around the world and we invite students
from everywhere to challenge themselves and connect with this
unique opportunity,” said Shammari. QMR-KWT mission control

Egypt to Send Two New Satellites into Space Next Year

The Egyptian Space Agency will send two space activities [...] to develop and support development of international cooperation,
new satellites into space in 2022. These emerging technologies, to disseminate the and development of a strong legal
are NExSat-1, intended for remote sensing use of satellite images to support activities, foundation are the pillars of the new space
and scientific research, and EgyptSat 2 especially in the field of agriculture, and to program. Through this program, Egypt
which will be used for Earth observation. stimulate exploration and innovation," said wants to break the dependence of most
The information was announced last Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar. On March 6, African countries on foreign infrastructure
June 11 by Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, the 2020, Egypt adopted a new 10-year space for communications, earth observation,
Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and development plan, seven months after the meteorology, disaster management, etc.
Scientific Research, at the Euro-African establishment of the new space authority The country is seeking to move from
Space Forum held for two days in Lisbon, that has already piloted the launch customer to service provider and tap
Portugal. The country wants to become of four satellites into space. Capacity into the growing business opportunities
a reference in the African space industry. building, development of space missions, offered by the sector.
"We aim to transform Egypt into a center modernization of facilities to support the
for training, research and development in growth of the commercial space industry,

65 JUN-AUG 2021