Abu Dhabi, December 05: The three-day Global Space Technology Forum (GSTF) taking place here from December 7 is expected to accelerate the establishment of a pan-Arab space agency.
Apart from the reduction of satellite-launching cost, such an agency is seen by space experts in the region as essential to combine talent, information and technology among countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Rick Theobald, commercial director at Streamline Marketing Group, told here.
The group is organising the forum at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre with official support from the UAE Space Reconnaissance Center, the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology and the UAE Society of Engineers.
The need for an Arab space agency was highlighted by senior delegates at the maiden edition of the GSTF held here in November last year, and plans have already been submitted to governments across the region. “Regional governments have been studying plans and more detailed proposals are being formulated,” said Nick Webb, director of Streamline Marketing Group.
“Even though the proposal is still at a very nascent stage of implementation, the message is being underlined in the countdown to this year’s GSTF which will attract experts from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the UAE capital for the first time,” Theobald said.
This year’s edition of the GSTF will have a special panel discussion on pan-Arab space agency and regional cooperation, and experts from different countries in the region are expected to participate in it.
The UAE’s space programmes have received a boost with the launch of DubaiSat remote sensing satellite last year, and the sustained progress achieved in the preparations for the launch of telecommunication satellites by Yahsat, the UAE’s first nationally owned satellite communications company.
Yahsat’s first satellite, which will be the first hybrid communication satellite in the region, is to be launched in the fourth quarter of next year while the second one will follow in the early half of 2011.
Another morale booster was the decision to set up a $1-billion Earth Observation Space Center in Abu Dhabi.
“The UAE Government is thus forging ahead with a sustained space development programme, and the emirates is seen by many as the logical venue for the pan-Arab space agency’s headquarters,” said Webb.
More than 20 emerging national space projects in the Middle East and Africa are actively participating in the GSTF which will have a three-day exhibition of the latest space technology equipment and services and a two-day conference outlining global policy relating to private ventures and future projects in space, new technology and research efforts making access to space easy and affordable.
Apart from NASA officials, representatives from the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) European Space Agency, and other prestigious space programmes worldwide will be attending the forum this year.
–Agencies