Dubai launches its first environmental satellite

Dubai launches its first environmental satellite

DUBAI / WAM

DMSat-1, the emirate's first nanometric environmental satellite, developed by Dubai Municipality in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), reached its orbit 550 km above Earth, following its successful launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz 2.1a space rocket. The first signal from DMSat-1 was received at MBRSC's mission control centre at 4:42 PM on Monday, signalling that the satellite had reached its orbit and begun its scientific mission. The launch was supervised by a team of officials and engineers from MBRSC and Dubai Municipality.

Under the supervision of MBRSC, once the testing of onboard subsystems and instruments is completed and verified, the satellite will move into its operational phase, in which it will monitor, collect and analyse environmental data as well as measure air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The satellite was fully manufactured and developed by the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto in Canada, and a team from MBRSC supervised the development and worked on the final testing of the satellite before being moved to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A second team of engineers and experts from MBRSC joined the base team to complete final functional testing