@msrmichaelson
ON A DUSTY construction site in the desert on the outskirts of Cairo, a blue glass building glints in the sunlight. The shiny new complex is home to the new Egyptian Space Agency, a reboot of an abandoned 1960s program that the country’s cash-poor government says will produce satellites to drive innovation and discover resources, which it hopes are hiding under Egypt’s vast deserts.
After sweeping to power in a popular military coup almost four years ago, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is now struggling to prove he can save a sputtering economy that has led to long lines at gas stations and inlated food prices and prompted one desperate citizen to set himself on ire. The space program is el-Sissi’s latest attempt to reinvigorate the Egyptian economy with a series of mega-projects—from a new administrative capital city outside Cairo to a second Suez Canal. But while investing in infrastructure can create jobs and jump-start economic growth, many in Egypt question whether the country can afford el-Sissi’s projects when so many Egyptians are living in poverty.