Abu Dhabi-based technology firm Hydra Trading has agreed to join a US company in an ambitious $ 1 billion project to build the Middle East’s first satellite listening centre and to launch four satellites over the next several years, company officials said on Tuesday.
The Gulf Satellite Programme calls for the construction of the so-called 4C Gulf Earth Observation Centre (GEOC), in collaboration with 4C Controls Inc. of the US. The timetable calls for two satellites to be sent aloft by mid-2012, a third one by 2013 and a fourth at a later date, said company officials on the sidelines of the International Defence Exhibition, or IDEX 2009.

In a related move, Mubadala Development Company subsidiary Yahsat announced plans to launch a $ 1 billion hybrid military and communications satellite later this year.

The GEOC would house a receiving station with facilities to acquire, process and distribute high resolution data from both optical and radar satellites, and it should place Abu Dhabi on the world’s ‘space map’, officials said.

“The centre will be a major step towards further development of space research and technology in the region,” said Dr Mohamad Zahran, Hydra Trading’s Director General.

“We also intend to create a talent pool specialised in the most advanced space technologies,” he said.

The 10,000-metre centre will focus on defence, civilian security and surveillance, emergency risk management, environmental protection, geology, forestry, hydrology, maritime management, cartography and planning.

“Having 4C’s GEOC in Abu Dhabi will uniquely provide our region access to key technology, secure and timely data acquisition... which was not available to our regional customers,” said Khalid Abdulla Mubarak Al Buainnain, 4C Controls’ Executive Vice-President for Middle East Military and Defence Projects.

Jean-Robert Martin, Chairman of the 4C Controls Board, said the GEOC will form a global network of three ground stations spread across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America to collect satellite data and provide telemetry, tracking and control.

The facility also intends to offer university level courses in space engineering, in cooperation with Turin’s Politecnico Di Torino.