UAE Shared Details on Newly-established Space Agency
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, May 25 (UPI) — Nearly a year after the United Arab Emirates announced the formation of its own space agency, officials in the small Arab nation have released a strategic framework that will dictate the agency’s development.
The newly founded agency’s most recognized goal remains the same — send the “first Arab unmanned probe” to Mars by 2021. But the framework expounds upon the agency’s mission, vision and priorities, and even offers a few specifics on new programs and initiatives.
“The establishment of a fully-fledged space sector in the UAE, with all necessary human resources, infrastructure and scientific research, is a primary national objective,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the country’s vice president and prime minister, said at a recent agency launch celebration — as reported by the Indo-Asian News Service.
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In conjunction with the newly published framework, officials announced a public-private partnership between the UAE space agency and three organizations — the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Orbital ATK Inc.
The cooperation among these groups will include the formation of a graduate degree program in advanced space science, the first in the Middle East. The grad program will also receive support form the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“The UAE’s focus on space is no mere impulse or whim,” Khalifa Mohammed Al Rumaithi, the chairman of the UAE Space Agency, said during the agency’s recent celebration.
“The UAE’s path to space dates back to 1976, when the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan met the NASA team responsible for the Apollo Moon programme,” Khalifa Mohammed added. “That meeting inspired nearly three decades of efforts guiding the UAE towards space and will be realised with the arrival the Hope Probe at the red planet in the coming years.”
While a number of a nations in the Middle East operate relatively small space operations, capable of launching and maintaining satellites, few have been active in deep space exploration. The UAE, flush with cash from its lucrative oil reserves, is set to become one of the first Arab nations to expand its area of aerospace interest beyond low Earth orbit.
