UAE satellite heralds new space race

While the western world was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing this summer, the United Arab Emirates took its own small step towards the conquest of space. For the past month, DubaiSat-1, the country’s first remote-sensing satellite, has been sending images home of the ports and palm-shaped artificial islands that distinguish its coastline.

But DubaiSat-1 is more than a boost to the national ego. Built by local scientists – aided by South Korea’s finest satellite engineers – it is also a testament to the UAE’s attempts to galvanise its economy through high-tech investment.

“Developing a core team of UAE scientists and experts was the most definite outcome of a strategy that is geared to support mature, knowledge-based development,” says Ahmed al-Mansouri, director-general of the Emirates Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, which developed the $50m satellite with the Seoul-based Satrec Initiative.