UAE Launches New Space Fund

The UAE Space Agency announced the launch of a new AED3 billion ($820 million) national investment and development fund for the space sector called "The National Space Fund".

According to the UAE state news agency WAM, The Fund will support new programmes aimed at supporting international and Emirati companies working in the sector of engineering, sciences and research applications.

One of the aims of the fund is to bring international talent to the UAE and establish the Gulf nation as a new hub for innovation and technology.

The National Space Fund will encourage global partnerships to establish themselves here in the Emirates, providing new and vital technology platforms and development to answer the needs of the UAE Space Programme and other global customers for vital innovation and technologies that answer the needs and possibilities of today’s world,

says Salem Al Qubaisi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency.

The Fund’s first investment will be the development of a constellation of advanced imaging satellites that use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology. It will allow the UAE Space Agency to address the critical need for better environmental and land usage monitoring, data collection and analysis. The "Sirb" (the Arabic term for a flock of birds) satellites will be able to create highly detailed images of land use, ice cover, surface changes to allow a wide range of scientific, civil and commercial applications.

SAR technology leapfrogs traditional imaging satellites, providing more powerful imaging using X-band radar technologies, allowing us to continue observations day and night, through fog and cloud cover as well as combining observations to create big data pictures simply not possible through conventional imaging,

explains Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency.