Saudi Arabia creates space agency
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The new colonial movement: Saudi Arabia has created its own space agency with the goal of diversifying its economy.
The man chosen to lead the agency, 62-year-old Prince Sultan bin Salman, is also the first Saudi to fly in space, having flown on a shuttle mission in 1985.
The Saudis also shook up the leadership of a number of government agencies. It is theorized though unproven that this shake-up is in connection with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
What this space agency will actually do is very unclear. What is clear is that it was created in response to the aggressive space effort of the UAE. The competition has forced Saudi Arabia’s hand.
For many reasons, mostly political but partly ethical, I do not use Google, Facebook, Twitter. They practice corrupt business policies, while targeting conservative websites for censoring, facts repeatedly confirmed by news stories and by my sense that Facebook has taken action to prevent my readers from recommending Behind the Black to their friends.
Thus, I must have your direct support to keep this webpage alive. Not only does the money pay the bills, it gives me the freedom to speak honestly about science and culture, instead of being forced to write it as others demand.
Please consider donating by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
The new colonial movement: Saudi Arabia has created its own space agency with the goal of diversifying its economy.
The man chosen to lead the agency, 62-year-old Prince Sultan bin Salman, is also the first Saudi to fly in space, having flown on a shuttle mission in 1985.
The Saudis also shook up the leadership of a number of government agencies. It is theorized though unproven that this shake-up is in connection with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
What this space agency will actually do is very unclear. What is clear is that it was created in response to the aggressive space effort of the UAE. The competition has forced Saudi Arabia’s hand.
Can’t wait to see what develops once SpaceX is flying people. Boeing too but I doubt they will be seeking out many customers.
The Saudis are about a century late to be starting on a program of modernization and economic diversification. A social order based on 7th-centuiry religion and tribal barbarian monarchy is going to mix with actual modernity about as well as oil and water. Or, given the essentially inevitable outcome of such an experiment, a better – and space-related – analogy might be to UDMH mixing with NO4.
“Toxic Propellant Hazards”
1966 NASA KSC
https://youtu.be/bDRKeM9kKxs
(22:10)
From “Bold They Rise”, a novel about the Space Shuttle, written by David Hitt and Heather Smith: On STS-51G, the crew was discussing public affairs relating to the Sultan’s presence, “We were told not to tell any camel jokes when Sultan showed up, and the first thing he did when he walked through the door was to say, “I left my camel outside.””
I thought that was pretty funny.