The UAE's first entirely Emirati-built satellite has successfully launched on Monday morning.
KhalifaSat launched into Earth orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima, a small island off the southern tip of mainland Japan.
WATCH: Successful lift-off of the #UAE’s first Emirati-built satellite #KhalifaSat as it launched from Japan this morning.
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 29, 2018
Full story: https://t.co/4Zmlx7x1kA pic.twitter.com/uIBzHiMO7w
KhalifaSat was third UAE satellite to be launched into space, after DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2.
The satellite took five years to development, starting in 2013 after an announcement about the space bid by UAE Vice President and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
بالـ #فيديو | إطلاق القمر الصناعي الإماراتي "#خليفة_سات" على متن صاروخ(H-IIA)، من مركز تانيغاشيما الفضائي في #اليابان.@MBRSpaceCentre #KhalifaSAT pic.twitter.com/ruAWK4Lak1
— العين الإخبارية (@alain_4u) October 29, 2018
The satellite will spend five years in a Low Earth Orbit where it will capture and deliver high-quality detailed images of Earth to the ground station at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.
The KhalifaSat Earth observation satellite was launched on board a H-2A rocket. The H-2A rocket also carried a Japanese Ibuki-2 satellite, which is to monitor greenhouse gasses.
#BurjKhalifa celebrates launching of #KhalifaSAT pic.twitter.com/HSBW52VWZ0
— Ali Al Shouk (@alialshouk) October 28, 2018
The UAE has a fledgling space program with big ambitions.
Two astronauts from the Gulf nation are scheduled to head to the International Space Station in 2019, a first for the country.
It also wants to launch a probe to Mars in 2020 and to colonize the Red Planet by 2117, with a fully functioning city of 600,000.
(With AP)
