Saudi Arabia has made a big push to develop space science in order to promote vital developments in the fields of education, health, water, natural resources management, urban planning, environmental monitoring and communications and satellite navigation, said Dr. Khalid Manzalawi, the deputy permanent representative to the UN.
Saudi Arabia considers that international cooperation in the field of space activities is an important means of peaceful exploration of outer space, said Manzalawi at the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee’s meeting in New York.
Manzlawi said the Kingdom is an important member of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
He added that the Kingdom, through King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), has concluded several agreements in outer space technology with the US, China, Russia, Germany and France and other countries.
The Kingdom has signed up to the UN’s five treaties and principles on outer space to promote the use of space technologies at the national level in several fields.
Manzalawi added that the Kingdom has developed a sustainable program for satellite technology and applications, including the training of Saudi scientists, engineers and specialists, and the transfer and localization of advanced space technologies, and the establishment of an advanced infrastructure to support and sustain a space industry in the Kingdom.
Between 2000 and 2017 the Kingdom successfully launched 13 Saudi satellites in low orbits of the Earth as well as three satellites for telecommunications, remote sensing and scientific experiments.
By the end of the year the SGS-1, the Saudi Satellite for Communication, which is being developed in cooperation with US Lockheed Martin Corp., will be launched.

From: Arabnews