The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt is on track for launch in the first quarter of 2028, according to Mohsen Al Awadhi, Director of the Space Missions Department at the UAE Space Agency, who described it as a long term strategic investment in the country’s space sector. He said the mission has made significant progress, including the development of the EMA Lander, which was designed, developed, assembled, and tested entirely in the UAE in less than two years. The lander has passed the technical and environmental tests needed to verify its flight readiness, and the Technology Innovation Institute played a key role in building it alongside national research institutions and companies. It is now being prepared for transfer to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States, where it will be integrated with the MBR Explorer spacecraft for further testing.
The mission has advanced to the assembly, integration, and testing phase after the spacecraft completed its Critical Design Review in 2025 and its System Integration Review in September of that year. Teams are now integrating and testing the subsystems of the explorer while preparing to add the lander, and the next stages include technical and environmental testing of the full spacecraft, final readiness reviews, and transport to the launch site in Japan. The launch window is limited to three weeks, which calls for precise engineering planning and risk management with national and international partners. The journey will last eight years and cover about five billion kilometres, with the explorer expected to meet its first asteroid, 10253 Westerwald, in February 2030. It will study seven asteroids in total, and its final target is 269 Justitia, which it will observe from orbit for about seven months before the lander separates to approach the surface and capture detailed images.
Al Awadhi described the project as the most complex mission in the history of the UAE space programme, citing the distance, the number of targets, and the operating conditions. The engineering challenges include large temperature swings near Venus and beyond Mars, precise navigation for gravity assist manoeuvres involving Venus, Earth, and Mars, and high speed flybys of small asteroids. As the spacecraft moves farther from Earth, signal delays and weaker sunlight will complicate communications and power management, so it carries advanced power and thermal control systems, and the lander can operate autonomously without direct instructions from Earth. The explorer carries four main instruments, a high resolution camera, a thermal infrared camera, a mid wavelength infrared spectrometer, and a thermal infrared spectrometer, which will examine terrain, surface features, and mineral and chemical composition while searching for signs of water and organic compounds. Scientists believe 269 Justitia may have originated in the Kuiper Belt before moving to the main asteroid belt, and studying it could provide new evidence on how water and organic material travelled in the early Solar System. The data collected will be made available to the international research community.
The project also has an industrial and workforce aim. About 150 Emirati professionals are taking part alongside international partners and gaining direct experience in spacecraft design, assembly, testing, and operations, and 50 percent of the mission work is allocated to private sector companies. National partners include the Technology Innovation Institute, Sharjah Space and Astronomy Hub, Khalifa University, New York University Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, HEX20, and the National Space Science and Technology Center at United Arab Emirates University, while international partners include the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the Italian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Al Awadhi said mission teams presented 10 technical papers at the 2026 International Astronautical Congress, and that the mission supports the National Space Strategy 2031. He added that its success will be measured not only by scientific discoveries but also by the expertise, technologies, and competitive companies it develops, building on the experience gained from the Hope Probe.
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