Sentinel-2 image of Saudi Arabia acquired on the 10th March 2024. The capital, Riyadh, is to the right of the image, and irrigation circles can be seen to the right. Image courtesy of ESA/Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.
This week we’re focusing on the up and coming space superpowers with a focus on Saudi Arabia’s intention to enter the space sector, and details of India’s latest mission success.
Saudi Arabia
At the end of last week it was announced that the Saudi Arabian Space Commission is working to launch a National Strategy for Space, together with a space company that will allow for government investment and private sector contributions. Over the last few years, many countries have announced the intention to develop national space strategies, however, they don’t have the resources of Saudi Arabia to invest into such initiatives.
For comparison, look at the strides Saudi Arabia has taken over the last few years in sport. From almost nowhere, there is now football’s Saudi Pro League who spent close on a billion pounds purchasing players in 2023. The country is also due to host football’s 2027 Asian Cup and the 2034 World Cup; in addition, it is hosting Spanish football’s Supercup until 2029 and Italian football’s Supercoppa Italiana in 2024, 2025, 2028 & 2029. Outside of football, it is due to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games and 2034 Asian Games, and its support for the LIV Golf Series over the last few years has led to the sport almost tearing itself apart. In the last week alone, the Kingdom has hosted Heavyweight Boxing, Formula One, and its first snooker tournament with the, Riyadh World Masters. If the country turns its attention the space sector, no-one should underestimate the impact they could have.
At a press conference, Abdullah Al-Swaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said that the developing National Strategy will cover both upstream and downstream sectors. Specifically, for the downstream, the minister highlighted likely areas of interest included:
- space telecommunications to address poor connectivity in the Kingdom, and other countries in Africa and Asia.
- navigation
- using Earth Observation (EO) to track and reduce carbon emissions
India
India is already a power, and has been one of the fastest growing space nations of the last few years alongside China, reaching the moon at the end of 2023 with its Chandrayaan-3 lander. We reported in February on the launch of the latest meteorological satellite, INSAT-3DS. This week the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that the satellite had passed the in-orbit testing phases of its commissioning, and had begun collecting data.
The first light images from the satellite, which were acquired on the 7th March 2024, have been issued and include a stunning false colour composite covering Asia. The images can be seen here.
Summary
The sector is changing. There is the steadily growing influence of commercial companies, such as the American firm, Intuitive Machines, space landing last month following investments from NASA. This combined with the growing number of countries going into space shows the sector is going to continue to change rapidly in the coming years and companies across the whole industry need to accept and embrace this change if they want to succeed.
