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Egypt’s outer space ambitions face real world setbacks

While Egyptian officials have said that the country’s first space agency would be launched in September 2018, the law to create it has not been introduced in parliament yet, to many Egyptians' chagrin.
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CAIRO — As Egypt announces its next steps linked to a forthcoming space program approved over a year ago, some are wondering why the country's out-of-this-world plans are moving at an astronomically slow pace.

Mohammed Hussein, acting chairman of the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said in a press release July 31 that “Egypt is preparing to launch a new Egyptian satellite in September 2018 simultaneously with the establishment of the first Egyptian space agency in cooperation with the UAE, Russia and China.” The Cabinet OK’d the law to establish the agency on Aug. 3, 2016.

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