(Ecofin Agency) - Egypt is planning new major space projects to be launched by 2022. The information was reported on September 12 by Mohamed El-Qosi, the CEO of the Egyptian Space Agency.

The projects include a collaboration with China for the launch of two satellites, one in 2021 and the second in 2022. One of these space equipment will have a high-resolution imaging capability and will be used for Earth observation.

According to Mohamed El-Qosi, this new milestone, which is “the result of strong political relations between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Chinese President Xi Jinping," was planned since September 2019. Construction of the satellites will begin in Egypt and China following the completion of the first phase of the project, which involved the construction of a satellite assembly center.

Moreover, Egypt is also involved in another satellite manufacturing project with a German company in which the Egyptian Space Agency holds a 45% stake. This is a component of the Universities Moon project, part of which an educational satellite is expected to be launched in July 2021.

Also, the pan-African satellite project, called the African Development Satellite Initiative (AfDev-Sat), conducted since 2019 in collaboration with Uganda, Nigeria, and Sudan, has been delayed due to the pandemic.