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.
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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.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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.