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World’s Largest Light Art Festival in Riyadh Sees Over 3 Million Spectators

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
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World’s Largest Light Art Festival in Riyadh Sees Over 3 Million Spectators

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA
Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District. SPA

Noor Riyadh, the world’s largest light art festival and a flagship program of Riyadh Art, concluded its successful fourth edition, welcoming over 3 million spectators and bringing together over 60 artworks by more than 60 artists from 18 countries, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Under the theme Light Years Apart, audiences experienced the festival across three iconic hubs: King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Wadi Hanifah, and JAX District.

The festival also featured a striking city-scale light installation at Al Faisaliah Tower, transforming Riyadh into a luminous celebration of art and innovation. This year’s festival brought together 18 Saudi and 43 international artists with site-specific and newly commissioned artworks.

Exceptional installations included Chris Levine’s Higher Power, a city-scale laser projection atop Al Faisaliah Tower; Maryam Tariq’s Shifting Perspectives, which explored perceptual ambiguity at Digital City; and Aether by United Visual Artists, a dazzling drone show at King Abdulaziz Historical Center. Another standout work, Rashed AlShashai’s The Fifth Pyramid, symbolized Riyadh’s cultural transformation.

Architect Khalid Al-Hazani, the executive director of Riyadh Art, bid farewell to the festival, saying: “Noor Riyadh 2024 celebrated humanity’s connection to the stars, sparking inspiration and dialogue through the universal language of art. We look forward to continuing Riyadh’s journey of cultural transformation.”
As for Noor Riyadh festival director Nouf Almoneef, he said: “Once again, this year’s festival united local and international artists for a truly world-class festival.”

“I extend my deepest gratitude to the incredible team -- our staff, volunteers, and partners for their exceptional efforts and collaboration, as well as to the millions of spectators whose engagement made this festival unforgettable,” SPA quoted him as saying.

As part of the community engagement program, which attracted over 52,000 participants, Noor Riyadh organized a variety of activities designed to inspire and connect with the community. These included engaging talks, insightful discussions, interactive workshops, creative experiences, family-friendly activities, and guided tours that enriched the festival experience for visitors.

The seamless execution of these activities was made possible by a dedicated team comprising curators, artists, art explainers, tour guides, and installation crews, ensuring every participant enjoyed a memorable experience.

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Varieties

China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
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China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS

Chinese rocket developer LandSpace plans to successfully recover a reusable booster in mid-2026, a company executive said in an interview, underscoring the Beijing-based firm's ambition to become China's answer to SpaceX.

The ability to return, recover, and reuse a rocket's engine-packed first stage, or booster, after launch is crucial to reducing costs and making it easier for countries to send satellites into orbit, and to turn space exploration into a commercially viable business similar to civil aviation, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, privately-owned LandSpace ‌became the first ‌Chinese entity to conduct a full reusable rocket ‌test, when ⁠Zhuque-3 ​blasted off ‌from a remote area in northwest China for its maiden flight, drawing comparisons to US aerospace giant SpaceX.

SECOND ATTEMPT PLANNED

While LandSpace failed to complete the crucial final step of landing and recovering the rocket's engine-packed booster, it hopes to clear this challenge in mid-2026 with a second test flight, Zhuque-3 deputy chief designer Dong Kai told Chinese podcast Tech Early Know in an interview published on Tuesday.

"If the second flight's recovery (stage) succeeds, we ⁠plan that on the fourth flight we will use a reused first stage to launch," Dong said.

So far, ‌the only company that has mastered reusable rocket technology is ‍SpaceX, founded by the world's richest ‍person Elon Musk. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly ‍three times per week, with its booster reused dozens of times if necessary.

Musk said in October that LandSpace's Zhuque-3 design could allow it to beat the Falcon 9, but went on to state that the Chinese challenger's launch cadence would take more than five years to ​reach that of SpaceX's workhorse model, at which point the US firm would have transitioned to its heavier, new-generation model Starship and "doing over ⁠100 times the annual payload to orbit of Falcon".

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

LandSpace's Dong said that, while the company was already building an engine for a future Starship-like model, he was not optimistic that in five years Falcon 9's work rate could be surpassed, noting that all rocket models in China combined this year totalled only around 100 launches.

"It's very difficult for a single company to reach that kind of frequency. It requires the support of an entire ecosystem," Dong said, adding that LandSpace had 10 launches planned next year for all its models.

Other executives have previously said that the financial cost of a high-frequency testing and launch regimen was crucial to SpaceX's success, and that LandSpace's only ‌hope of amassing enough funds to sustain a similar programme would be by tapping China's capital markets, pointing to plans for an initial public offering next year.

 

 

Varieties

Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)

Russia plans to put ​a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space program and a joint Russian-Chinese research station as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as ‌a leading power in ‌space exploration, but in recent ‌decades ⁠it ​has fallen ‌behind the United States and increasingly China.

Russia's ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionized the launch of space vehicles - once a Russian specialty.

Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, ⁠said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power ‌plant by 2036 and signed a contract ‍with the Lavochkin Association ‍aerospace company to do it.

Roscosmos said the purpose of ‍the plant was to power Russia's lunar program, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.

"The project is an important step towards the creation of ​a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration program," ⁠Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research institute.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said in June that one of the corporation's aims was to put a nuclear power plant on the moon and to explore Venus, known as earth's "sister" planet.

The moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, moderates the earth's wobble ‌on its axis, which ensures a more stable climate. It also causes tides in the world's oceans.

Varieties

Seasonal Rains Transform Saudi Arabia’s Rawdat Muhanna into Natural Lake

People visit Rawdat Muhanna after recent rainfall. (SPA)
People visit Rawdat Muhanna after recent rainfall. (SPA)
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Seasonal Rains Transform Saudi Arabia’s Rawdat Muhanna into Natural Lake

People visit Rawdat Muhanna after recent rainfall. (SPA)
People visit Rawdat Muhanna after recent rainfall. (SPA)

Rawdat Muhanna, or Muhanna's Garden, located near the town of Al-Nabqiyah in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia’s Qassim region, has witnessed a notable influx of visitors and picnickers in recent days following rainfall that filled the Rawdat with water, transforming it into a vast natural lake.

The rare and striking scene has drawn residents and visitors from within and outside the region, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday.

Stretching over more than 10 kilometers, Rawdat Muhanna has become a breathtaking natural landscape amid the sands of Al-Thuwairat. The contrast between the blue waters and the red desert sand has created a picturesque panorama, making the site a favored destination for nature enthusiasts and photographers.

Rawdat Muhanna is one of the region’s prominent seasonal parks, as several valleys flow into it, most notably Wadi Al-Mustawi. These valleys contribute to the accumulation of large volumes of water, which in some seasons can remain for nearly a year, boosting the site’s ecological value and making it one of the most beautiful natural areas in the Qassim desert.

Visitors said Rawdat Muhanna has become an ideal destination for outdoor recreation and relaxation.