Saudi Space Agency Signs Agreement With NASA To Launch Space Weather Satellite

The Saudi Space Agency (SSA) has signed an executive agreement with NASA to launch the first Saudi satellite dedicated to studying space climate as part of the Artemis II mission. The signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the official visit of US President Donald Trump to the country.

According to the US space agency, Saudi Arabia's CubeSat will measure aspects of space weather at a range of distances from Earth and deploy in high Earth orbit from a spacecraft adapter on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket after Orion is safely flying on its own with its crew of four astronauts. The objective of the satellite mission is to support global scientific research by collecting precise data on solar activity and its impact on the Earth's magnetosphere, which in turn improves the safety of astronauts and the sustainability of communication systems and satellites. The mission is one of the initiatives under the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP), a major Saudi Vision 2030 realisation program. It aims to localise space technologies and increase local content in strategic industries.