Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- Saudi Arabia has successfully launched six satellites into orbit according to the Saudi Press agency.

The satellites were launched as a part of a program sponsored by the king Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology (kacst).

Dr Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed al-Saud, the Vice-President of kacst for the research institutes, said the launching of the satellites constitutes an important development and that a Saudi team working at the space research institute at kacst had undertaken the preparation and testing of the satellites and all requited work in this respect.

Prince Turki said Saudi Arabia currently has 12 satellites in space and that the latest six were launched using a Russian Ukraine missile from Bikaner base in Kazakhstan.