Egypt already has its fourth spy satellite in orbit and Emirates its second astronaut

The world's leading Arab nations continue to bet and invest in the space sector, while competing with each other to demonstrate their strengths and the degree of cooperation they have with the world's great powers, China and the United States.

The latest country to fly into space is the Union of Arab Emirates, which has just launched its second astronaut, Sultan Al Neyadi, into orbit. After taking off with three others from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre and a 22-hour flight in the manned Dragon Crew 6 capsule, the Emirati is now aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where he will remain for six months.

Egypt is following another path. With the support of Xi Jinping's government, President Abdelfatah el Sisi's main effort is to complete and reinforce the network of spy satellites that secure Egypt's borders and help the country's economic development. 

Very little is known about the most recent one it has put into space - on 24 February. It has remained top secret, both during its manufacture and its launch. Its name is Horus-1, the God of royalty, of the sky, war and hunting in ancient Egyptian mythology. It could be a derivative of MisrSat-2, which Egypt contracted with China in September 2019.

A Chinese Long March 2C rocket blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre - in China's northwestern Gobi desert - with the secretive payload. Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) CEO Professor Sherif Sedky appeared before the media the following day.

The Egyptian official reported the least he could say: that the Chinese-launched object is owned by the Egyptian state and that it is "capable of taking high-resolution images that benefit Egypt and Arab and African countries in their quest for sustainable development". 

Sherif Sedky insisted that Horus-1 "is not a luxury, but a necessity for the country's growth". The new observation satellite is dual-purpose, dedicated to military and civilian missions, among which the EgSA president highlights its dedication "to examine the soil of arable land, which will result in improving crop types, maximising profits and productivity".

Horus-1 will also monitor water sources, help anticipate natural disasters, monitor the occupation of state land and identify the location of illegal crops.

According to US Space Force analysts, Horus-1 is being manufactured by China's state-owned DFH Aerospace, with the participation of Egyptian engineers. It has a mass of about 300 kilograms and has been positioned at an altitude of approximately 496 kilometres above the Earth. 

In the United Arab Emirates, both the authorities and the country's nationals are elated to have succeeded in sending a second compatriot back into space, who this time will play an important role, and not just a tourist one. He will be the first citizen of an Arab nation to spend around 180 days in space.

Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi has been trained to perform a large number of tasks as a mission specialist, like his travelling and now billeted companion, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fediaev, also a mission specialist.

During his time on the ISS on the Zayed Ambition 2 mission, Sultan Al Neyadi will conduct 19 scientific tests for NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Two other national experiments are coordinated by the Emirates' Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). 

The international ones will be developed in different areas of health sciences. They focus on the cardiovascular system, the immune system, sleep and back pain.

It will also carry out technical demonstrations, studies and trials related to fluids, plant biology, materials, radiation and epigenetics, the latter to determine changes in gene function that are heritable and not due to alterations in the DNA sequence.

In one of the studies funded by the Mohammed bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Al Neyadi will assess how the micro-gravity environment of spaceflight affects cardio-postural interactions. In a second trial, he will investigate in relation to dental cells also under a micro-gravity environment.