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Transcript
00:00So, MBZSAT is one of the biggest satellites that's ever built in the United Arab Emirates.
00:09It's about a one-ton system and we've been working on it for quite a long time and we
00:14have a lot of UAE nationals, over 150 working on this project.
00:19That's something that I'm personally very proud of.
00:21But the unique thing about this project as well is that we have UAE industry.
00:25So we have companies like Strata, EGA, all of the aluminium is from EGA.
00:30We have companies like Edge who are providing electronics and cabling.
00:35Companies that exist in the UAE that have been retooled to work in the space industry
00:39are now helping us develop these types of satellites.
00:43And our objective is to increase that participation from UAE companies and hopefully start to
00:49develop most of the components within the UAE.
00:52So, of course, we are planning to launch MBZSAT later this year.
00:58We expect it to be in the second half of the year on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission, obviously
01:04from the United States.
01:06So based on the scheduling and our discussions with SpaceX, we'll announce the dates shortly.
01:13Okay, we are happy to announce today that we are reaching the final stages of MBZSAT.
01:19The satellite, as you can see here, it's almost fully assembled.
01:24We have reached 50% of the final integration and we are hoping that by the middle of this
01:30year the whole satellite will be ready for launch.
01:33We are really excited about this.
01:35The project took really big milestones for the UAE space sector.
01:41We've managed to localize a lot of the industries in terms of manufacturing, all the mechanical
01:47structures, all the sourcing of the actual aluminum that comes as the main body of the
01:52structure of the satellite comes from local companies that we work with, EGA, Strata,
01:58Rockford, Halcon, Falcon.
02:01All of these are our partners and that kind of partnership brings us to build an ecosystem
02:08here for the future of the space sector in UAE.
02:11By the launch and then we look forward for the data that will come that will definitely
02:16help all of the government and private sector in UAE and even globally.