Striking images of Kuwait captured by country's own satellite

It is the first time Kuwait has used own satellite to gather information from space

A mosiac of Kuwait created with images captured by the Kuwait-1 nanosatellite. Photo: Kuwait space agency

A mosaic of the eastern half of Kuwait has been created using images captured by the Kuwait-1 nanosatellite.

The islands of Warba, Boubyan and Failaka, as well as Kuwait City and its southern coastline, can be seen in the images released by the country's space agency.

KuwaitSat-1 is the second Kuwaiti satellite in space and was launched on January 4 on SpaceX Falcon 9.

It was built by students at Kuwait University to test if the on-board camera can be used for attitude determination and control.

"The national project team for the first Kuwaiti satellite of Kuwait University announces that it has taken several pictures of the State of Kuwait and merged them into a mosaic, in order to present a beautiful view of the eastern half of Kuwait," a tweet on the Kuwait-1 satellite's official Twitter account said.

"This success constitutes a new beginning to strengthen Kuwait's position in the field of space and develop its scientific and technological capabilities."

Kuwait news agency Kuna said there are plans to develop KuwaitSat-2 for launch in three years.

Kuwait’s first satellite, a miniature one called QMR-KWT, was launched on June 30, 2021, on a SpaceX rocket to help students test software code.

It is unclear whether the nanosatellite, built by the OrbitalSpace company, is still operational.