Why is Egypt Spending Millions on a New Space Agency?

Updated | 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, is now struggling to prove he can save a sputtering economy that has led to long lines at gas stations and inflated food prices and prompted one desperate citizen to set himself on fire. 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