The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has announced the Space Ventures initiative, a launchpad for start-ups in the space sector from the region and around the world.
The new ecosystem aims to enable businesses to collaborate with MBRSC on long-term projects, gain access to technology and support, and receive aid in communicating with regulatory agencies around the world in order to achieve viability and long-term growth.
Space Ventures has partnered with the leading incubators and accelerators in the region to provide the right kind of push for established as well as promising space start-ups, a statement said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai’s call to focus on innovation, research, science, and technology to form the pillars of a knowledge-based, highly productive and competitive economy has contributed to the realisation of Space Ventures, it added.
The initiative by MBRSC aims to inspire innovation and create a new market for space related companies in the UAE and the wider region.
From small companies with big ideas to established entities with a desire to expand, Space Ventures is looking to build solid partnerships in the upstream, downstream areas of the space sector, including communications, data storage, IoT, satellite manufacture and launch, robotics, space hardware and software.
Start-ups that partner with Space Ventures will need to be based in the UAE and will benefit from the country’s active and progressive space programme.
Yousuf Hamad AlShaibani (pictured above), director-general, MBRSC, said: “The UAE space sector is looking to further expand its horizon and create a new space economy landscape in the country through a self-sustaining space ecosystem. This is only possible through partnerships with ambitious companies focused on emerging trends in the upstream and downstream areas of the space sector as well as space exploration and sciences, which will add further impetus to the country’s space sector.
“MBRSC’s commitment towards space research and development has garnered the attention of the world, which in turn has inspired us to start the Space Ventures initiative.”
The Space Ventures initiative is funded and supported by the ICT Fund of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, founded in 2006, is home to the UAE National Space Programme. It has launched the DubaiSat-1, DubaiSat-2 and the KhalifaSat and also launched the Emirates Mars Mission Hope Probe, which became the first Arab interplanetary mission to reach the Martian orbit in February.
The centre recently announced the launch of the Emirates Lunar Mission, the first Emirati and Arab mission to explore the Moon and plans to develop MBZ-SAT, the most advanced commercial satellite in the region in the field of high-resolution satellite imagery.
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