DUBAI, June 21. /TASS/. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in the United Arab Emirates will launch its satellite atop Russia’s Soyuz-2 carrier rocket, the Government of Dubai Media Office said on Tuesday.
"On June 27th at 3:34 p.m. UAE time [2:34 Moscow time], MBR Space Centre will launch its maiden mission, PHI-Demo, from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome using the Soyuz-2 rocket as part of the Payload Hosting Initiative," the media office said in a statement.
The statement says that the initiative, jointly led by MBRSC and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), is aimed at providing space access and hastening the sustainable progression of novel space technologies.
The WAM news agency reported that the satellite would include IoT (Internet of Things) equipment, developed by OQ Technology, a UAE-based start-up under MBRSC's Space Ventures initiative. It will employ the 5G mobile communications technology to store and forward data collected from IoT devices in remote locations, as well from IoT equipment used in various industries and in autonomous vehicles. The satellite also features a "green and safe propulsion subsystem" that uses water as the primary propellant. It was developed by SteamJet, a company from the United Kingdom.
According to the Russian government’s decree dated June 2, 2023, the PHI-Demo spacecraft will be launched as a hitchhiker payload during the orbiting of Russia’s Meteor-M 2-3 hydrometeorological satellite.
The UAE launched its space program in 2006, and has since launched several satellites. In 2020, the country sent its Al-Amal (Hope) robotic probe to Mars, aimed at studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere and climate.
On December 11, 2022, a US-made Falcon-9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral (Florida, United States), carrying Japan’s Hakuto-R lander that was expected to deliver a UAE rover to the Moon. However, communication with Hakuto-R was lost when it was performing a landing on the lunar surface.
On May 29, 2023, UAE Prime Minister and Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai, said the country was planning to launch its MBR Explorer spacecraft to study the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.