UAE unveils 1st locally-made satellite

'Khalifa Sat' is first satellite to be fully manufactured by Emirati engineers

By Mohamed Ibrahim

DUBAI (AA) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday unveiled the country's first locally-manufactured satellite.

"Khalifa Sat" is the first satellite to be fully manufactured by Emirati engineers. It is set to be put into orbit later this year.

"Today, the first Arab satellite was fully manufactured by an Emirati engineering team without any external foreign support," UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said during a visit to the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC).

"Khalifa Sat officially gets the UAE into the era of full-scale space industrialization," he said.

In 2009, MBRSC launched the DubaiSat-1 into space as the Gulf state's first satellite for remote sensing.

In 2013, the same center launched a second satellite, DubaiSat-2.

Kaynak: