Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Supreme Space Council, has witnessed the unveiling of the probe for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, a spacecraft developed, assembled and tested in the UAE that reached flight readiness in less than two years.
The probe will travel aboard the MBR Explorer on the country's second interplanetary mission, a journey of roughly 5 billion km past seven asteroids. It will end at 269 Justitia, where the probe will separate from the spacecraft and descend autonomously to the surface. Scientists believe the asteroid may have formed in the outer Solar System before moving into the main belt, and studying it could shed light on how water and organic materials were distributed as the planets formed.
The project began in January 2025 with an agreement between the UAE Space Agency and the Technology Innovation Institute. A national team of more than 150 engineers and scientists has worked on it, alongside HEX20, Khalifa University and the National Space Science and Technology Center at United Arab Emirates University. The UAE Space Agency leads and funds the mission.
Sheikh Hamdan said the achievement reflects the strength of Emirati talent and the country's research and manufacturing ecosystem. He noted that the UAE's space sector now exceeds AED44 billion and that the National Space Strategy 2031 aims to double the returns of the space economy, raise its added value by 60% and place the UAE among the world's top 10 space economies.
Faisal Al Bannai of the Advanced Technology Research Council said the probe shows what is possible when advanced research becomes mission-ready engineering.
The probe will be integrated with the MBR Explorer at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics before a planned launch from Japan in the first quarter of 2028. The UAE is also advancing the Rashid Rover 2 lunar mission, its participation in NASA's Artemis programme and Altair-Next Gen, a USD1 billion initiative to build 50 AI-enabled satellites in Abu Dhabi.
News Source: Emirates News Agency
