RIYADH — Noura Saud Al-Tuwaim, a prominent Saudi woman satellite scientist, lauded the wise leadership’s keenness in empowering the daughters of the nation and activating their role as partners in the process of development, progress and prosperity in the Kingdom. She said the high rate of participation of young talents in the space sector is the outcome of this keenness. Noura has served as head of the optics department at the National Center for Satellite Technology and was part of the Saudi industrial satellite development team. Speaking to Saudi Press Agency, she expressed her pride and happiness in working with engineers from the nation who have had a long history in the field of engineering and satellite technology. Referring to her career in the satellite industry, Noura said that she started her career in 2012 with a cooperative training program, which is one of the requirements for graduation from Prince Sultan University as a trainee at the National Center for Satellite Technology under King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). After her graduation with first honors in 2013, she joined the center as an employee, where she participated in the Saudi SAT 5A and 5B project, one of the prominent national projects, which was successfully launched into space in 2018. During her work with KACST, she emphasized the city’s keenness to develop national competencies, as she was given the opportunity to pursue higher studies in the United States in 2015 under the foreign scholarship program. She secured admission to study master’s degree at McCormick School of Engineering under the Northwestern University from where she obtained her master’s degree in 2017. Noura said that KACST established the National Center for Satellite Technology in 1999 under the supervision of the Space Research Institute. She noted that the leadership at the center has proved its success in a short period of time. The center aims to raise national capabilities for developing, manufacturing and testing advanced satellite systems to serve the national need, she said while stressing that the Saudi woman engineer has a prominent role in the growth of scientific achievements.