10 facts about the UAE's Space Research Centre in Al Ain

Plans for Al Ain’s new space centre were revealed as part of the strategic frameworks plan of the UAE Space Agency, ahead of the fifth Global Space and Satellite Forum in Abu Dhabi. Here are a few facts you need to know about the new research facility.

 

1. It costs Dh100 million (US $27 million)

 

2. It is expected to open in early 2016

 

3. It will be the first space research centre in the Middle East.

 

4. It will act as the main headquarters to support UAE’s unmanned Hope Probe for the Mars Mission planned in July 2020

 

5. The new centre will be financed by the UAE University and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, through the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Fund.

 

6. One of the goals for the Space Research Centre is to attract and produce homegrown Emirati men and women space scientists.

 

7. An academic programme in space sciences, to support the Mars Mission, will be launched at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi.

 

8. By the end of 2015, the UAE Space Agency will have selected 20 students to be part of an academic delegation to travel overseas and within the UAE as part of its academic space progamme.

 

9. The new facility will create many jobs including an estimated 150 for Emirati scientists and engineers who will be needed to work on the Mars mission by 2020. 

 

10. The Space Research Centre in way is a tribute to Shaikh Zayed who had a keen interest in space and who even met three Apollo Mission astronauts in February of 1976 in a bid to find out what the Arab deserts looked like. He also treasured a replica space shuttle NASA presented him with.