UAE's first commercially built satellite Altair-1 launches on SpaceX Transporter-18

Altair-1, the first commercial satellite built in the UAE, launched on Friday 2 October aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:32 a.m. 1 2 Gulf News reported that the satellite deployed, acquired a signal, is nominal and is now in commissioning; The National said it had beamed a signal to Earth and started operations. 2 1 It was designed, assembled, integrated and tested at the facility of Orbitworks in Abu Dhabi, and was flown to California in August. 2

Altair-1 is the first of the Altair constellation, ten AI-enabled satellites for Earth observation; the other nine are due to follow, The National saying next year and Gulf News through 2027. 1 2 Orbitworks is a joint venture between Marlan Space, a UAE space company and subsidiary of IHC, and San Francisco-based Loft Orbital, which integrated the satellite. 2 1 Each satellite carries five sensors (optical, short-wave infrared, thermal, hyperspectral and radio frequency) and processes data on board; at full strength in 2027 the constellation is designed to revisit any point on Earth roughly every four hours. 1 2

Stated uses include disaster response, maritime awareness, environmental monitoring, food security, infrastructure surveillance and national security, including spotting wildfires early and locating vessels operating clandestinely. 1 2 Dr Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Sports and chairman of the UAE Space Agency, said the launch reflects the strength of the national space ecosystem under the National Space Strategy 2031 and advances the ambition to be among the world's 10 leading space economies by 2031. 1 2 Orbitworks and Marlan Space chief executive Dr Hamdullah Mohib said: "The UAE is no longer only a buyer of space capability; it is a builder of it." 1 2

Loft Orbital chief executive Pierre-Damien Vaujour said his company was a "small contributor" and that the launch paves the way for 10 more satellites over the next 12 months and 50 more over the next few years. 1 2 The Orbitworks facility at KEZAD in Abu Dhabi, inaugurated in November 2025 as the first in the Middle East dedicated to commercial satellite production, can build up to 50 satellites a year at full scale, about one a week; Gulf News gives its size as 50,000 square feet with a 15,000-square-foot cleanroom, The National as 4,645 square metres. 2 1 Gulf News reported that customers can own a satellite and its data or buy access as a service, with anchor customers including multiple French government entities, the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, and talks under way with prospective customers in North America, Africa and Asia. 2

Gulf News also reported that on 9 September Marlan Space and Loft Orbital announced a US$1 billion consortium with Mistral, BlackSky and MaiaSpace for an AI satellite infrastructure whose first phase is fifty satellites. 2