News

Saudi Arabia To Host Sixth Halo Space Test Flight In September

The space tourism startup aims to conduct crewed flights in 2025 and commence full commercial operations by as early as 2026.

Published

2 years ago

August 13, 2024

Nour Nasir

Halo Space

Space tourism company Halo Space has announced plans for another test flight in Saudi Arabia, scheduled for September 2024, in collaboration with the Kingdom’s Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST).

The event will be Halo Space’s 6th test flight and a key milestone in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy. The test will deploy Halo Space’s prototype Aurora capsule, which will travel around 30 km into Earth’s high atmosphere and the edge of space. According to Alberto Castrillo, Halo Space’s Chief Technology Officer, the flight will further test the engineering of the high-tech craft:

“The mission is designed to meticulously validate all the critical systems we’ve been developing for the past three years. The dates and location were set to ensure the reliable operation of our equipment and safe conditions for the teams on the ground operating the flight”.

Frank Salzgeber, Acting Deputy Governor for the Space Sector at CST, added, “This innovative project represents a significant step forward in Space Tourism. In support of such technological advancements and investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, CST is always committed to providing regulatory frameworks that foster innovation among companies and projects like Halo Space while ensuring the safety of personnel and materials”.

Also Read: G42 Company Inception Launches 20+ Arabic AI Language Models

Halo Space’s prototype test flights are in preparation for the launch of fully crewed missions, which are expected to take place in 2025. Commercial flights could be available from 2026 and will offer the completely unique experience of rising gently above the Earth in a balloon-lifted capsule.

The journey, spanning up to 200 horizontal km and 35 vertical km, will last over six hours, allowing passengers to witness the curvature of the Earth and the vastness of space. Halo Space aims to make space tourism accessible to a wide audience by 2030 and plans to carry over 10,000 passengers by the decade’s end.

Related Topics:Halo Space Saudi Arabia Space

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News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.