While in the Houston area my Saudi family and I made a trip to the NASA Johnson Space Center. It was a very interesting day to see all the sights and learn so much about the history and plans of America’s ventures to the Outer Frontier. I learned that the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was actually in existence prior to construction and development of the Johnson Space Center. However today it is the Johnson Space Center which takes the lead in all the exhibitions and journeys into Outer Space. The Johnson Space Center was established in 1961 as the ‘Manned Spacecraft Center.’ For the past three decades the Johnson Space Center has been the world leader in human space flight operations.
NASA has collaborated with Russia, European Space Agency, France, Germany, Japan, Canada on research and development just to name a few.
Now by comparison, I am curious why a rich country like Saudi Arabia has not chosen 
to have its own indigenous space program, instead depending on reliance and collaboration with allies? To date only one Saudi national has made it into space, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud. Yes; he is a member of the Saudi Royal Family, born in 1956 and an officer in the Saudi Air Force. In 1985, he flew as a payload specialist on STS-51-G Discovery (June 17-24, 1985). STS 51-G was the eighteenth flight of a space shuttle, and the fifth flight of Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. As one of a seven-member international crew, which also included American and French astronauts, he represented the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) in deploying their satellite, ARABSAT-1B. Upon conclusion of his flight, he helped to found the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization comprising all astronauts and cosmonauts who have been in space, and served on its Board of Directors for several years.
My question is, does Saudi Arabia have any kind of an indigenous space program or does it simply continue to collaborate and launch its satellites in conjunction with international partners and allies? According to an article in Wired Magazine, Saudi Arabia is cited as a country which has helped fund space exploration but does not have a program of its own. The countries cited in the article with their own indigenous space programs included: Nigeria, Algeria, Israel, India, Iran, Brazil, Japan, China, European Space Agency and Russia.
So why do you think Saudi Arabia with its resources and abilities has chosen not to have an indigenous space program of its own? I asked one Saudi for his take on this subject. His response was “Saudis can’t drive on the roads yet so how do you expect them to navigate space?” (of course that was said in jest but does make one wonder…
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Space programs are very expensive. All the countries that have succeeded have strong indigenous engineering education programs. The US and Russian space programs were built on the German rocket program from WWII. Almost all the countries involved have strong talent in areas necessary to succeed (ie: electronic, optics, chemical engineering etc.).
Does Saudi Arabia have its own graduate engineering education program yet? Since they are running their oil industry they must now have some trained Saudi engineers.
One thing that Saudi Arabia must be thinking of, is the need to develop a missile program and some kind of nuclear energy program. If Iran succeeds in developing a nuclear weapon (even a dud like N. Koreas) that Arab world will suddenly start a mad rush to develop a Sunni bomb. Unless they are totally stupid they are already gathering intelligence to find out how far the Iranians have gone.
That is where I would think they want to put their money right now.
“Unless they are totally stupid they are already gathering intelligence to find out how far the Iranians have gone.” HEhehhee. I doubt it, & that doesn’t make them stupid. Saudi & Iran are just fine, the only reason Saudi might not mingle with Iran is because of its relations with the US, otherwise most people are over the Sunni Shia nonsense. Anyone in posession of a nuclear weapon is a dope. And everybody knows Iran is only doing it to piss off the US and what not. I once used to think that countries were only developing nuclear weapons just to safe gaurd themselves, not to really use them. I now know that leaders can be very very crazy & do not care much about anything but power, regardless of what values they say they hold. Yes, I am very scared of what these maniacs are up to. Maybe I’ve been watching too much of Future Boy Conan.
just for a joke am writing – please dont take seriously
perhaps, saudis are not interested in knowing beyond the earth
– more interested in materialistic 
tvsrinivas –I had the same thought that maybe Saudi just wasn’t interested in a space program and preferred to invest in developping other sectors (whether materialistic or not
)
However, Jerry M now has me wondering about nuclear competencies–Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, US based elsewhere, Russia, France, China, N Korea, maybe Syria, etc….Maybe I’ll go watch CNN and terrorize myself!
@ chiara
I told just as for fun
probably saudi is interested in development in other fields like medicare, oil exploration etc, which would be more profitable. also, the space knowledge may be available at a cheaper cost than investment
Why can’t any Middle Eastern country build a car? For the same reason – you can’t get agreement on anything.
We simply don’t have the educational infrastructure to support a space program beyond construction of simple satellites.
Another thing, space programs are notoriously expensive and non profitable. Most countries that do have them use them as excuses to develop military technology, namely ballistic missiles. Since Saudi Arabia have no interest in the military side of nuclear technology (so far), a space program would be a very hard sell.
It takes alot of money, but even more important it takes a lot of experience
I know that King Fahad University for petrolium has a graduate engineering program in Space technology “Airospace engineering”, a graduate in pursuing his PhD here in my University in US. I have my reservations in planning for Future in KSA. I do believe that we need to plan for alternative energy resources like solar and nuclear since we depend heavily on Oil alone, and I do believe that in a time where the infra structure in KSA is lacking many important elements it’s quite difficult to design for a future agenda something that we don’t need in the near future… Space technology is not a matter of wealth only, it’s a politically controlled field so that the technology don’t fall into the wrong hands
I’m saying this but not really serious … how would they build a proper and safe space suit for a woman? But then there wouldn’t be women on board I guess.
Be happy there is no space program. When I think of the poverty and lack of universal health care in the USA and then I think of the money spent on their space program….
tvsrinivas–thank you–I enjoyed your sense of humour.
I really don’t see the advantage of a country investing, beyond in a limited way, in a space program, except for political or military gain.
@Jerry – very good points. I believe the KFUPM is the most technically oriented University in the Kingdom but once KAUST is fully up and running, I think Saudi Arabia will be graduating first rate engineers in the Kingdom obliterating the need to go outside for education and training.
I am under the impression that Saudi is indeed exploring nuclear energy options.
Why develop a ‘Sunni’ bomb when there is already an “islamic” bomb (ie, Pakistan)? Interesting thought though…what would the US do or say if Saudi announced it were to start a nuclear weapon program especially given the US and Israel have that capability (among others)?
I’m not sure about Saudi, but several of the Gulf countries are in the preliminary stages of developing nuclear technology, encouraged by the U.S., which likes to keep some tension between Iran and the Arab Gulf states. I think the UAE just made some agreement with the U.S. (They were worried that the deal would be jeopardized by the Emirati prince’s torture video).
It seems like it would make a lot more sense to develop solar energy, since these countries have hot, sunny days pretty much year-round; they do talk about that, too.
The strategic value of the Gulf countries developing nuclear energy and weapons is an interesting question–the southern route to Iran?, on the doorstep of Pakistan, Afghanistan, “Talibanistan”? protecting Israeli nuclear sites? containing the spread of Islamism in the Horn of Africa?
I don’t think there is anything Islamic about a nuclear bomb. There isn’t any form of feeling in it either, not even hate. It’s just pure insanity, that’s what it is!
@American Bedu,
“Why develop a ‘Sunni’ bomb when there is already an “islamic” bomb (ie, Pakistan)? Interesting thought though”
I really meant Sunni Arab. The assumption is that if Iran developed a bomb the Sunni states in the region would be pushed to build on for matters of national pride. None of these countries actually ‘need’ a nuclear weapon. None of them have enemies whose population centers make sense as target of a nuclear weapon.
@American Bedu
“what would the US do or say if Saudi announced it were to start a nuclear weapon program especially given the US and Israel have that capability (among others)?”
I doubt that Saudi Arabia would make this kind of announcement. Of course if Iran did announce a nuclear weapon all bets would be off.
@jerry — I agree with you!
@daifuku
“Anyone in posession of a nuclear weapon is a dope.”
While I might have used a different phrase, I mostly agree with you. Nuclear weapons have been used 2 in history. They are expensive to develop and they are not something with much of a real tactical use.
They are always developed for reasons of fear. The US feared that Germany had a head start.
“And everybody knows Iran is only doing it to piss off the US and what not ”
Yes, you have hit the nail on the head. If I were Iran I would have planted lots of good rumors just to make the US squirm.
“Nuclear weapons have been used 2 in history. ”
that should say ‘2 times in history’
Forget about using them, developing them is insanely dangerous already. I mean, have these people forgotten Chernobyl? Even Israel had a scare from one of its plants a few years back, let’s assume they are insane enough to use it on their enemies, is it worth endangering the lives of their civilians?
I also think no one’s pride should get in the way of their brain….when that happens, all shit breaks loose.
Australian pride, ok. Australian pride targeting lebos, not ok.
Forming movements to defy poor socioeconomic changes, ok; taking these groups to a whole new level to target people, based on race-yeah, don’t get me started-instead of targeting poltics in said country, not ok. Criticizing these situations and wanting to find a solution, ok; criticizing without trying to find a solution, not ok. The latter sentence is targeted at myself :p See, it’s a whole lot easier to say neonazis are crazy MFs than to understand their mentality, of course, there is a difference between understanding a person’s mentality & excusing their actions. In the case of nuclear weapons though, it is insane because the people who own them are high on power, the most dangerous drug on earth, it can screw with your head and more peoples’ lives than you can ever imagine. The thing is, even if you did want to help, you can’t really sit down and talk things over with someone who can’t see straight, due to power…..I would still love to believe there is someone out there who has a solution for these individuals, all I know, it sure as heck ain’t me. Maybe the only way to rush them back to acceptable behavior, is by taking away their power, now how exactly can you do that?:S Don’t tell me you’ll need some other addict to do the job for you. It’s an ongoing cycle. My head hurts.
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Now the Gulf region has a dedicated conference on space and satellite technology. If the response to the show is any sort of Indication, you will soon hear about a indigenous space and satellite programs from the Middle East region.
Pls visit our website
http://www.smg-conferences.com/gstf.
Hi, space ,nuclear ,weapon…..these advance topics are not for crazy and overmarried saudi people.I have seen it need a millions of population chazing a techno goal throgh well structured engineering academics …..at least 500 Engineering colleges,200 universities,28*40 000 students and in each branch of engineering like computers,IT,plastic,ceramic,oil,mobile,airospace…..
100 more branches of engineering….
do saudia has this all?????
No…exactly saudi and gulf countries are drifting to thier slavery by not enhencing thier scientific skills,
By the way how long oil will let them to survive superorily?
I m in India and can say about my country is going to be super power in next some years because we have best composition of political negotiation among the internal key players.actually hinduism is very well structured ,and very very practical knowledge of managing your world,however islam goes in the depth of life after death.so what the basic diffrence is?
really all islamic countries are far behind in technology and engineering.same thing happens while compare to chrishtianity or jews.
practical knowledge means ,real time educational infrastructure,trainers,..also students….abviously there will very limited students available who are crazy to know about this world in islam,because islam says to have a very high level look of these modular facilities that have been provided you to be called as earth,ultimately either you end up with a neuclear program,or you ended up into some space,finally you will have to start a new life,and that is what a best topic to research for human being,that which engineering can answer beyond the life of human,and what is hidden in the life after this death.
so why to waste time in researching very much irrelevent topic then your life?