A Regional Center for Space Science and Technology Education of Western Asia will be opened in Jordan within the first quarter of this year, according to the Royal Jordanian Geographic Center (RJGC). In remarks at the 10th Arab Conference on Astronomy and Space currently held in Oman, RJGC Chairman Awni Khasawneh on Monday said that the center will be established by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and will be based at the RJGC.
He added that the center aims at developing skills and knowledge of universities’ personnel, scientists and environmental researchers through in-depth education in order to utilize it in national and regional development.
The goal of the center is also to develop an indigenous capability for research and applications in the core disciplines of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems, Satellite Communications, Satellite Meteorology and Global Climate, Space and Atmospheric Sciences as well as data management.
The UN-affiliated center is the sixth of its kind in the world after India’s office for Asia and the Pacific, Nigeria and Morocco’s for Africa and Brazil and Mexico’s for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Jordan’s center is distinguished for being the only center that uses Arabic language which will serve the Arab countries through a series of theoretical courses and researching applications.
