Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on Sunday launched the executive phases for building the Khalifa Sat, the first satellite to be fully built and manufactured at the hands of 100% UAE competent experts and to be place on orbit by 2017.Khalifa Sat will be the first Arab-made satellite, catapulting the Arab region into a new era of space industry and competition in space sciences.While launching the promising project at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST), Sheikh Mohammed said 'Khalifa Sat is a message to all Arabs that Arab ushering into the space era is neither out of reach nor impossible and our State will be a leader in this industry as long as we have the confidence and courage to enter into competition with major countries in this field,' Sheikh Mohammed said, dedicating the new ambitious scientific achievement to President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.'Our doors will remain open for cooperation with all Arab countries in space technology and engineering,' Sheikh Mohammed added.'We are extremely delighted at seeing sons and daughters of the UAE forming the first Arab team to build a satellite and launch it into outer space in 2017..... our confidence in them is boundless and our ambitions are the sky's the limit and success comes from Allah,' Sheikh Mohammed said.He affirmed during his visit to EISAST that :' Excellence of our youth in space sciences, engineering and energy opens before our State new huge development prospects and new avenues which will have set foot for the first time.The Vice President said that he will personally follow up the Khalifa Sat work team, revealing that the government will embark on setting up similar teams in other fields.'When I look at the outstanding Emirati performers I always say this is what the late founding fathers Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum planted and yesterday we are harvesting the fruits for building capacities of Emirati citizen.' During the visit, Sheikh Mohammed heard from the Emirati experts and engineers about EIAST's plan to build the new Khalifa Sat which will be launch into the outer space.He also viewed plans and designs of facilities for building satellites in 2015.At EIAST, a powerful integrated national team of 45 high caliber engineers and experts are currently establishing advanced facilities and high-tech laboratories for building the promising humidity and dust- proof Sat.EIAST has launched two Sats :DubaiSat 1 and DubaiSat 2 which marked a national milestone as they were the first Remote Sensing satellites to be fully-owned by a UAE entity.Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by launch ceremony by Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Lt. General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and Public Security. Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Qamzi, Chairman of EIAST, Khalifa Saeed Salman, Director General of Dubai Department of Protocol and EIAST board members.
Source: WAM