Muscat; The Sultante of Oman’s first official satellite will blast off to space in 2025, the MoTCIT minister said on Monday as the countdown started for the launch of the nation’s first private satellite from the UK spaceport at the time of going to print.
The country will also begin construction of a space station in Duqm before the end of this year.
Said bin Hamoud al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MoTCIT), said, “The program for the official satellite of the country is on track and it will be launched in 2025. We had slight delays due to financing, which we procured last year. We missed one opportunity for the orbit that we had booked for this satellite, but we are prepared to meet the 2025 target.”
The minister said that the center for space and advanced technology, including the National Space Services Company (Nascom) has been working on studying opportunities with many stakeholders within and outside the country.
On the launch of the Aman satellite, the minister said this is done by a private company and there are a lot of opportunities to work with Cubesats for SMEs as the barrier of entry is comparatively low.
Construction for the Space Complex in Duqm will start before the end of 2023.
The construction, as per the master plan for the launch facility will take three years to complete, however, we can have the first public rocket launch one year from now,” said HH Azzan bin Qais Al Said, founder of Nascom, who has been advising the national space programme.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
