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Egypt To Build Satellite To Fix Muslim Calendar CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt will start building a satellite later this year which aims at fixing uniform dates for Muslim holidays across the world, the government Al-Ahram newspaper reported. Earth-based astrologers sighting the appearance of the new moon, with months often varying by a day from country to country, currently set Muslim lunar months. Al-Ahram newspaper said the satellite, to be called al-Ahilla or Crescents, would be funded by the Riyadh-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), but did not say how much it would cost and gave few other details. It did not say when it would be launched or by whom. The satellite will spearhead a program to build a total of three satellites and set up an Egyptian Space Agency, which the paper said will be officially announced at the beginning of April at a conference of Egypt's year-old Space Science and Technology Council. As well as building satellites, the space program will aim to develop space research centers and enable Egypt "to effectively join the space industry," the government paper said. 
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