The first Lebanese missile in the Arab world
With modest efforts, coupled with determination, a small Lebanese team headed by Professor Manoj Manougian managed in the early sixties to "penetrate" the azimuth of the space envelope! Al-Mayadeen Net presents a story that some tried to obliterate! With special photos he sent to the "Lebanese Center for Remote Sensing" in order to archive them.
The United Arab Emirates succeeded in sending a "probe" to Mars, but small Lebanon with its capabilities and limited in its geography was the first to experiment with missiles... Indeed, many of them were launched, in the sixties!
With modest efforts, coupled with hope and determination, a small Lebanese team led by Lebanese Professor Manoj Manougian succeeded in "breaking through" the azimuth of the space envelope!
At that time, the world was preoccupied with the frantic race to explore space between the two international giants, the Soviet Union (at the time) and the United States. After the Soviets sent the dog “Laika” in 1957 into outer space, the famous Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was able to swim in outer space and orbit around the Earth in 1962, this is what made the Americans claim in 1969 that the American astronaut Neil Armstrong managed to set foot on the surface of the moon!
In this particular decade of the sixties, the "Lebanese Rocket Society" founded by the Lebanese professor and teacher of mathematics and physics Manougian at "Haigazian University" launched the first Lebanese rocket, as part of a project that would change the reality of science in Lebanon.
In this regard, Dr. Ghaleb Faour, director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, told Al-Mayadeen Net, "The Lebanese missile project was serious and was adopted by the late Lebanese President Fouad Chehab."
Photos from the archives of Dr. Manougian (second from the right )with Lebanese President Fouad Chehab (In white) and representatives of the Lebanese Army (second photo)
Faour added, "The success of multiple experiments between 1960 and 1967, reaching orbits with a height of 400 km, of course, bodes a brilliant scientific future, as these orbits are considered the space field for the placement of Earth observation satellites."
"Israel" is pressing..!
On the talk about the Lebanese space project being subjected to external pressure, he explained that "all the reports, articles and statements of those responsible for the project at the time show the extent of Western pressure, especially through the late French President Charles de Gaulle, who conveyed threats to invade Lebanon by "Israel", which actually led to the program's suspension. Lebanese".
He explains, "In the early sixties, the Israelis established the National Space Committee, which prepared its space program, which of course includes a missile program. It carried out many experiments, the first of which was in 1961 (Shavit 2), when David Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli prime minister) was afraid of the Russian success in launching The first satellite "Sputnik" in 1957 and the Russian-Egyptian rapprochement during the era of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and of course, "Israel" looked with fear from all the Arab programs around it, such as the Lebanese and Egyptian programmes.
Faour:
Laying the necessary foundations for launching a space program in Lebanon
About the future of space research, says d. Faour, "Since its establishment in 1996, the National Center for Remote Sensing has been launching research programs aimed at consolidating the use of space technology that contributes to the management of natural resources and others."
He explained that "in the context of the Arab tendency to launch the Arab Space Agency and the joining of the National Center for Remote Sensing in Lebanon to the Arab Group for Space Cooperation, the center has begun to lay the necessary foundations for launching a space program in Lebanon, similar to many Arab countries.
Despite the current health and economic conditions that impede all scientific research programs in Lebanon, the National Council for Scientific Research in Lebanon has formed a scientific committee for space representing all Lebanese universities, where it is working on preparing a road plan for launching a space program for Lebanon. A draft has been prepared that we hope will be approved soon. Urgent.
A Lebanese scientific team was also formed to participate in the production of the Arab satellite 813, which will be launched within 3 years, and is considered the first joint Arab project in the field of space technology,” concludes the Director of the Lebanese Center for Remote Sensing.
https://www.almayadeen.net/news/env...خ-اللبناني-الأول-عربيا----كيف-أوقفته--إسرائيل
* The Arab satellite 813will be designed and manufactured by Arab engineers from countries that have signed the charter for the launch of the first group of its kind in the Arab world. The eleven countries are the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt. The member countries of the Group voted for the UAE to lead the new organisation.
The satellite will be launched in 2024..
https://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/uae/813.htm
