S3’s SOAR space shuttle. Photo: S3

[Via Satellite 10-01-2015] Swiss Space Systems has teamed up with D&B Group to open a subsidiary named S3 Middle East, laying the framework for small satellite launch activity in the Arab World. Together, the companies will seek through the subsidiary to develop, manufacture, certify and operate unmanned suborbital shuttles to locally launch spacecraft up to 250 kg from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 2019.

D&B Group is active in the areas of financial consulting, natural resource trading and ecology. With S3, the company is expanding into space. Other S3 partners include Dassault Aviation, Kuznetsov, RKK Energia, Thales Alenia Space, and others in science and academia. S3 is developing a suborbital shuttle for launching small satellites called SOAR. Together S3 and D&B Group will inaugurate the S3 Middle East office during the Dubai Air Show in November 2015.