Dubai satellite launch delayed, new date announced

Dubai - DMSat-1 launch postponed after a surge in voltage was detected.

Photo: MBRSC/Twitter

By Nandini Sircar

Published: Sat 20 Mar 2021, 12:11 PM

Last updated: Sat 20 Mar 2021, 12:14 PM

The launch of DMSat-1 has been postponed until Sunday, due to a surge in voltage, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced.

The Dubai Municipality and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) were all set to launch DMSat-1 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10.07am on Saturday. It will instead now be launched at 10.07am tomorrow.

The Russian Soyuz rocket was to blast off to space with 38 foreign satellites on board.

The rocket would have launched satellites from more than half a dozen Asian, Arab and European countries, as well as Canada and Brazil.

Roscosmos Head Dmitry Rogozin said, “The launch was postponed after a surge in voltage was detected.

"We decided not to take the risk,” Rogozin told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Satellite to monitor source of air pollutants

The miniature environment monitoring satellite will detect the source of air pollutants and concentration of dust and its impact on public health in the UAE.

Weighing only 15kg, DMSat-1 can perform tasks done by much larger satellites.

A team of specialised engineers and project supervisors from the MBRSC has been posted at the launch site at Baikonur since February 25.

The satellite was placed on the launch rocket Soyuz 2.1a on March 7 for initial preparations and tests.

These tests were conducted until March 12.

The satellite, which was manufactured in 18 months, will be capable of covering an area of up to 80,000 square kilometres each day.

Data will be stored on the onboard storage system and downloaded to MBRSC’s ground station.

The launch of the satellite strengthens the UAE’s implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, which requires the country to generate data on greenhouse gas emissions and build national capacities to study global warming.

On a local level, the DMSat-1 seeks to calculate the rate of carbon dioxide emissions in relation to GDP as outlined in the Dubai 2021 Plan.