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Saudi Red Sea Authority, GEOSA Issue First Nautical Chart for Sindalah Island

Saudi Red Sea Authority, GEOSA Issue First Nautical Chart for Sindalah Island
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Saudi Red Sea Authority, GEOSA Issue First Nautical Chart for Sindalah Island

Saudi Red Sea Authority, GEOSA Issue First Nautical Chart for Sindalah Island

The Saudi Red Sea Authority (SRSA) and the General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information (GEOSA) have collaborated to produce the first high-resolution paper and electronic navigational nautical chart of Sindalah Island in the NEOM region based on the latest international standards and in accordance with International Hydrographic Organization standards, in addition to producing four other maps of the NEOM region.
This collaboration was initiated by SRSA as part of its mandates, which include identifying navigation routes for marine activities within Saudi Arabia’s geographical scope, as well as developing and updating them in coordination with relevant entities to ensure environmental protection and preservation, SPA reported.
GEOSA has implemented the highest standards for producing and updating nautical charts, which include data on depths, coral reefs, islands, navigation hazards, and tidal information to enhance marine safety in Saudi Arabia’s coastal areas and to support smart decision making.
These charts provide reliable and secure geospatial marine data that will contribute to planning and development efforts in line with Saudi Vision 2030, facilitating investment attraction in coastal tourism while providing navigational data to ease the entry and exit of yachts and other watercraft to Sindalah and other islands. It also enhances marine safety and environmental protection by applying the highest security and safety standards through buoys and navigational aids.
The SRSA began its journey toward building and regulating the coastal tourism sector in 2021 to enhance integration between the relevant entities by issuing licenses and permits, developing the necessary policies and strategies, determining infrastructure requirements, preserving the marine environment, enabling investment, and promoting navigational and marine tourism activities, which will reflect as an added value to the national economy.
Meanwhile, GEOSA is working to regulate the surveying and geospatial information sector and related imaging activities in Saudi Arabia. This includes adopting and developing the national geospatial infrastructure, the national geodetic reference, national geodetic networks, hydrographic surveying, and providing data, products, services, electronic applications, topographic and aerial maps, and maritime navigation charts relevant to the sector.

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China's New Crew Arrives at Space Station in Sign of Growing Influence in Space Field

A Long March rocket with a Shenzhou-19 spacecraft atop takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China in the early hours of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A Long March rocket with a Shenzhou-19 spacecraft atop takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China in the early hours of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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China's New Crew Arrives at Space Station in Sign of Growing Influence in Space Field

A Long March rocket with a Shenzhou-19 spacecraft atop takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China in the early hours of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A Long March rocket with a Shenzhou-19 spacecraft atop takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China in the early hours of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A Chinese space ship carrying a three-person crew docked with its orbiting space station Tuesday as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space in competition with the United States, even as it looks for cooperation from other nations.
The team of two men and one woman will replace the astronauts who have lived on the Tiangong space station for the last six months, conducting a variety of experiments and maintaining the structure, The Associated Press reported.
They are expected to stay until April or May of next year. The new mission commander, Cai Xuzhe, went to space in the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022, while theother two, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are first-time space travelers. Song and Wang were born in the 1990s and are graduates of the third wave of Chinese astronaut recruitment, having undergone a rigorous testing and training process taking years.
Early Wednesday morning, China declared the launch and entry into outerspace a “complete success.”
The Shenzhou-19 spaceship carrying the trio blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. local time atop a Long March-2F rocket, the backbone of China’s crewed space missions.
“The crew condition is good and the launch has been successful,” the state broadcaster China Central Television announced.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, mainly because of US concerns over the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm’s overall control over the space program. China’s moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the US and others, including Japan and India.
The new team will replace the astronauts who have lived on the Tiangong space station for the last six months and will overlap with them for a couple of days or more. They are expected to stay until April or May of next year.
The new mission commander, Cai Xuzhe, went to space in the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022, while the other two, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are first-time space travelers, born in the 1990s.
Song was an air force pilot and Wang an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Wang will be the crew’s payload specialist and the third Chinese woman aboard a crewed mission.
Besides putting a space station into orbit, the Chinese space agency has landed an explorer on Mars. It aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, which would make China the second nation after the United States to do so. It also plans to build a research station on the moon and has already transferred rock and soil samples from the moon in a first for any nation in decades, and placed a rover on the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first.
The US still leads in space exploration and plans to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, though NASA pushed the target date back to 2026 earlier this year.
The new Chinese crew will perform spacewalks and install new equipment to protect the station from space debris, some of which was created by China.
According to NASA, large pieces of debris have been created by “satellite explosions and collisions.” China’s firing of a rocket to destroy a redundant weather satellite in 2007 and the “accidental collision of American and Russian communications satellites in 2009 greatly increased the amount of large debris in orbit,” it said.
China’s space authorities say they have measures in place in case their astronauts have to return to Earth earlier.
China launched its first crewed mission in 2003, becoming only the third nation to do so after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The space program is a source of enormous national pride and a hallmark of China’s technological advances over the past two decades.