Our Correspondent
The UAE’s achievements in the space sector will receive another boost as it launches the MeznSat satellite on a Russian Soyuz rocket soon, WAM reported.
MeznSat is among the satellites owned and operated by the UAE. According to the UAE Space Agency, MeznSat is being developed by young Emirati citizens from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi and the American University in Ras Al Khaimah, who will also monitor and analyse data sent to the mainland station at the YahSat lab in Khalifa University and the sub-land station at American University.
During the project’s announcement, Dr. Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director-General of the Agency, stressed that MeznSat will play a key role in analysing the atmosphere and providing information and photos that will help understand many issues facing our planet.
Satellites so far
The nation has been successfully making efforts to develop satellites for the past one decade, with the participation of many talented young UAE nationals, and in partnership with local and international entities.
The UAE owns many high-capacity satellites. The first was ‘DubaiSat-1’ launched in 2008 by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre to monitor climate change.
In 2013, DubaiSat-2 was launched for observation and monitoring purposes. Emirati engineers from the MBRSC contributed to its development.
Yah-1 satellite, launched by the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company in 2011, had objectives such as broadcasting TV programmes and providing other commercial services for 62 million viewers.
In 2012, Yah-2 was launched to provide YahClick satellite internet services to various corporations and individuals in the Middle East, African, and Central and Southwest Asia.
In 2018 came Yah-3 to offer equivalent services in South America and West Africa.
Nayif-1 was the first nano-metric satellite and the first ‘CubeSat’ Emirati educational satellite, which was launched in 2017 from India for educational purposes. It was developed by a group of students from the American University of Sharjah and the MBRSC.
‘KhalifaSat’, launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan in October 2018, was the first satellite to be completely developed and manufactured in the UAE.
