The National Space Fund is an AED 3 billion fund from UAE Space Agency. It will support ground-breaking programmes that support international and Emirati companies co-operating in space sector engineering, sciences and research applications.

The National Space Fund aims to build national capabilities and competencies, raise the economic contribution to diversifying the national economy, and consolidate the UAE’s position in the space sector. It will be managed and supervised by the UAE Space Agency.

The Fund is set up to develop the infrastructure supporting the space industry, and create an appropriate environment to attract start-ups in space. In addition, the National Space Fund aims at adopting governance systems to achieve leadership in the space sector, attracting specialised global companies, and building partnerships between national and international advanced technology companies.

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The Fund’s first project to be launched to space will be a constellation of advanced remote sensing satellites using radar technologies to provide unparalleled imaging capabilities.

The constellation of advanced imaging satellites (Sirb)

The Fund’s first investment will be in the development and launch of a constellation of advanced imaging satellites for the Emirates, using the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology. The constellation is to be named Sirb after the Arabic term for a flock of birds and will address the critical need for better environmental and land usage monitoring, data collection and analysis to meet today’s global challenges.

The planned satellites will be able to create highly detailed and complex radar ‘images’ of land use, ice cover, surface changes and characterisation, with a wide range of scientific, civil and commercial applications.

The six-year satellite development programme will see the first satellite launch in three years, a much faster time to launch than was possible using traditional earth observation satellite design principles.

The Sirb satellites will be built through a number of partnerships between the Emirati public and private sectors together with international players, with submissions being opened for a range of system integration, development and subsystem construction opportunities as part of the constellation development, launch, operation and commercialisation plan.

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