Papers commend UAE steps to build first locally-made satellite

U.A.E. papers, in editorials today, hailed the announcement of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to launch the executive phases for building "Khalifa-Sat", the first satellite to be fully manufactured by 100% U.A.E. experts and to be placed in orbit by 2017. In an editorial entitled: "Satellite takes U.A.E. back to the future", The National said that the U.A.E. is hoping one day to lead the space race. As the Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced on Sunday, the nation is planning the first 100 per cent Arab satellite, designed and built by Emiratis. To be named Khalifa-Sat, it will be manufactured at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology in Dubai and is expected to be launched in 2017. It will be the fifth U.A.E. satellite, but the first to be made without external partners, making it a major technological milestone. Sheikh Mohammed said that the leadership's confidence in the satellite team is "boundless", and he foreshadowed government support for projects in other fields. The past year has seen a commitment to improving educational standards, along with several initiatives to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Khalifa-Sat is creating jobs that require high-level technical skills, a positive sign that the U.A.E. is investing in its human capital and is delivering on its vision to diversify the economy and create a workforce suited to the challenges of today and tomorrow. "The message is clear, the U.A.E. is a young nation that is always looking forward. And Khalifa-Sat is evidence that with the right vision, skill, support and determination, the sky really is the limit", the National concluded. Meanwhile, the Dubai-based Gulf News in its editorial, "U.A.E. set for a big leap in the realm of satellite technology", said that the U.A.E. is determined to diversify its economy and invest in high-tech industries that require a skilled workforce that will be a long-term asset to the country. It said that in the past, the U.A.E. had helped build satellites when it worked in joint ventures with Korean company Satrec to develop DubaiSat1 and DubaiSat2. However, Khalifa-Sat takes the process into a totally new area of local manufacturing, as the skills learnt on earlier projects will be utilised in the U.A.E. for local manufacture and assembly. The plan is to make the U.A.E. self-sufficient in both constructing and testing of satellites by 2015, followed by the launch of the new Khalifa-Sat by 2017. "Satellite technology, and the aerospace industry in general, is one of the areas that the U.A.E. has made a priority for its long-term development", the Gulf News concluded. Gulf Today, in an editorial entitled, "A huge leap for U.A.E. space plan", said it is a very proud moment for the U.A.E. as the Khalifa-Sat will be the first Arab-made satellite, catapulting the Arab region into a new era of the space industry and competition in space sciences. The fact that an exclusive national team, comprised of 45 Emirati engineers, is working on building the Khalifa-Sat is bound to boost the confidence of youth in the country and inspire them to achieve more. Launching the project at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST), Sheikh Mohammed has made it clear that Khalifa-Sat is a message to all Arabs that being part of the space era is neither out of reach nor impossible and the U.A.E. will be a leader in this industry. It is heartening to see Emirati youth as the first Arab team to build a satellite and launch it into outer space in 2017. The country's confidence in them, as Sheikh Mohammed rightly puts it, is boundless. The excellence of Emirati youth in space sciences, engineering and energy surely opens before the nation huge new development prospects for the first time.