813 Arab Satellite

The second project of the AIT Centre is development of 813, the Arab Satellite, an initiative announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The name 813 refers to the date that marked the beginning of prosperity for the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the reign of Al-Ma’mun.

"We have almost completed its first phase called the mission concept," Al Hashmi said. "We have the initial configuration of the satellite. We will soon move to the second phase. We have already constituted the local team and we are selecting partners from other Arab countries participating in the project," he revealed.

The UAE initiated the creation of the first Arab Space Coordination Group in 2019 along with 10 Arab nations to develop, 813, an advanced satellite funded by the UAE Space Agency to monitor earth, environment and climate.

The new satellite will be designed and manufactured by Arab engineers from countries that have signed the charter for the launch of the first group of its kind in the Arab world. The eleven countries are the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt. The member countries of the Group voted for the UAE to lead the new organisation.

About the benefits of the satellite that will be launched in 2024, Al Hashmi said, "The beauty of this satellite is its environmental science objective. It will be the first satellite in the region collecting atmospheric data on climate change. "This will open new area of research about climate change in the UAE’s universities and the collected data will be shared with other universities and institutions in the Arab world," he explained.