Oman announces aggressive ’25 launch schedule and public viewing area at its new Duqm spaceport
The Middle East, showing the location of
Oman’s proposed spaceport at Duqm.
Oman yesterday announced that it has added a viewing area so that the public can view the planned half dozen launches that are presently planned for the rest of 2025 at its new spaceport in Duqm.
A three-day fan experience in the free-of-charge zone, called Etlaq FX, will feature a series of activities for different age groups, including a robotics competition.
“It is an interactive area within the spaceport, so we can give the public an opportunity to see the launch and engage them with educational activities,” said Zainab Alsalhi, business development manager for Etlaq, during a webinar this month.
The announced launch schedule is of course the real story, as it involves five launches from two different commercial companies as well as from Kuwait.
Click for original.
The graphic to the right provides the details, with all these launches involving suborbital test launches. Horus-4 is probably the most interesting, as it will attempt a vertical take-off and landing. Built by the Middle Eastern rocket startup Advanced Rocket Technologies, the test flight is presently scheduled for April 24, 2025, and will reach a maximum altitude of about 250 feet before deploying landing legs and returning vertical to the ground.
Less information is available about the Stellar Kinetics rockets as well as Kuwait’s small test.
Regardless, it is very clear that Oman wants this spaceport to be a go. It is also clear that there is solid interest in the Middle East to use it, if only for suborbital tests at this time. That a Middle Eastern startup is already about to test its own home-grown vertical take-off and landing rocket there also suggests that the foundation for a real aerospace industry has been established.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Middle East, showing the location of
Oman’s proposed spaceport at Duqm.
Oman yesterday announced that it has added a viewing area so that the public can view the planned half dozen launches that are presently planned for the rest of 2025 at its new spaceport in Duqm.
A three-day fan experience in the free-of-charge zone, called Etlaq FX, will feature a series of activities for different age groups, including a robotics competition.
“It is an interactive area within the spaceport, so we can give the public an opportunity to see the launch and engage them with educational activities,” said Zainab Alsalhi, business development manager for Etlaq, during a webinar this month.
The announced launch schedule is of course the real story, as it involves five launches from two different commercial companies as well as from Kuwait.
Click for original.
The graphic to the right provides the details, with all these launches involving suborbital test launches. Horus-4 is probably the most interesting, as it will attempt a vertical take-off and landing. Built by the Middle Eastern rocket startup Advanced Rocket Technologies, the test flight is presently scheduled for April 24, 2025, and will reach a maximum altitude of about 250 feet before deploying landing legs and returning vertical to the ground.
Less information is available about the Stellar Kinetics rockets as well as Kuwait’s small test.
Regardless, it is very clear that Oman wants this spaceport to be a go. It is also clear that there is solid interest in the Middle East to use it, if only for suborbital tests at this time. That a Middle Eastern startup is already about to test its own home-grown vertical take-off and landing rocket there also suggests that the foundation for a real aerospace industry has been established.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The formatting on this post is horribly broken, the second image has pushed into the text which is left two characters wide and unreadable.
David Eastman: I think you are viewing the post on a smartphone, and thus are zoomed in too much. Zoom out somewhat and the formatting will improve.
Nope, I’m viewing the site full screen on a 27″ monitor, and I’ve tried in both Edge and Brave. This is what it looks like: https://imgur.com/a/E5Mgjq4
David Eastman: I can’t see your screen capture at imgur, but I tested the post on two different browsers, Firefox and Brave, and it looks fine.
Have you tried zooming out (making the text smaller)?
If Advanced Rocket Technologies manages even to get its little test hopper off the ground then, whether it hits its altitude target and/or manages to stick a landing or not, it will be the first launch of a rocket in the Middle East that is at least designed to be recoverable/reusable. Teensy as Horus 4 is, that would still put it ahead of the entirety of Europe.
Strange times we live in.
Duqm is much closer to the equator compared to Cape Canaveral, and for a launch directly east, the distance to the nearest land in India is almost 1000 miles. From Duqm, Antarctica is the nearest land for a launch directly south, and after that, the ship would fly north over the western U.S. Based on all this, it looks like Oman has great geographic assets for a spaceport.
Greg Anson,
I’d have to agree on all points – while still noting that the biggest potential downside is that Duqm is located smack in the midst of what has been the most unruly part of the planet in recent decades. Good luck to the Omanis. They are likely to need it.