UAE to increase private sector role in space missions, award more contracts: Officials

The UAE is expanding private sector involvement in its space programme by awarding more contracts to local companies, officials announced on Tuesday at the 'Make it in the Emirates' conference.

Speaking during the conference, Amer Al Sayegh, deputy assistant of Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), said the UAE is not seeking to attract space companies that are solely coming for contracts.

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The country welcomes entities that want to establish their presence here, as more and more contracts are awarded to the private sector. The move mirrors global trends, including Nasa’s approach, and aims to develop an advanced local space industry.

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“Nasa used to do their own projects, but today they are awarding contracts to companies. Shifting the work and activities from the government to the private sector is faster and more efficient and provides better results. This is what we are also planning to do now.

"We issued a new tender to move the development of our platform called Payload Hosting Initiative. We have offered a tender to local companies to build and take care of the development of this mission. This will build the capability of the private sector to take care of a full mission. This is what we want to do even on our other mission," Al Sayegh said during the panel discussion at the conference.

He added that they look at both the cost locally and internationally of the project before making a decision.

“Space is global. You cannot do everything in one country. Not even the US is doing it, but we try to do that with the best that we can with available partners here in the UAE. This goes across the globe for all our projects – be it satellite development, rovers, space exploration missions, and astronaut programme,” he added during the discussion on the topic of Deep technology and space manufacturing: New frontiers for UAE industrial ecosystem.

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubaisi, director-general of UAE Space Agency; Karim Sabbagh, managing director of Space42; and Abdelhafid Mordi, CEO of Thales Emarat Technologies, also attended the panel discussion.

Al Qubaisi said under the UAE Space Strategy 2030, the focus is focused on delivering competitive and world-class services in the space industry, building national capacity in terms of human resources, and international cooperation among others.

Waheed Abbas

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.