UAE announces pan-Arab body for space programme

ABU DHABI: Eleven Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Morocco on Tuesday signed on to the first regional team to cooperate on a space programme, the UAE said.

"Today at the Global Space Congress in Abu Dhabi, we attended the signing of a charter to establish the first Arab body for space cooperation, bringing together 11 Arab states," said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum in comments carried by the government media office.

The pan-Arab team’s first project is "a satellite that Arab scientists will work on from here in the UAE", he said. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed, the UAE’s vice president and prime minister, vowed in 2017 to send four Emirati astronauts to the International Space Station by 2022.