A satellite built entirely in the UAE is about to leave for space. When it does, it will mark a turning point that has been decades in the making.
This autumn, Orbitworks will send the Altair satellite to a launch site in California, beginning a journey that will take it 500km into orbit, where it will capture images of the Earth almost in real time. For the first time, the UAE will be a provider of space technology.
Dr Hamdullah Mohib, acting chief executive of Orbitworks and chief executive of parent company Marlon Space, has a biography that reads like a geopolitical novel. A refugee who grew up in camps in Pakistan, he joined Intel as an engineer, then became Afghanistan’s ambassador to the US during Barack Obama's administration, before being appointed Kabul's national security adviser. Now, he leads a satellite manufacturing company in Abu Dhabi, and is steering it on to the global market.
“We have been an importer of technologies,” Dr Mohib told The National. “What this would mean is that we are, for the first time, exporting space technologies to nations that normally sell to us.
“What we’re building is like the App Store moment for satellites.”
Altair is more than a single satellite. By next year, Orbitworks plans to have 10 in orbit, forming a constellation that can capture images of a single location on Earth every three hours, rather than once a day. The satellites will be equipped with Nvidia chips capable of processing images, meaning customers will receive intelligence, not raw data, within minutes of a task command.
The company says it is among the first constellation operators in the world to use such powerful on-board computing.
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Orbitworks has launched a satellite manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Orbitworks -
The facility is capable of developing 50 satellites a year. Photo: Orbitworks -
It includes a cleanroom for spacecraft assembly, with testing equipment such as thermal vacuum chambers, a vibration table, electromagnetic interference chamber and mission simulation environments. Photo: Orbitworks -
Emirati astronauts Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla attend the launch, along with other representatives of the country's space organisations, including the UAE Space Agency, Space42 and the Edge Group. Photo: Orbitworks -
Dr Ahmad Al Falasi, Minister of Sports and chairman of the UAE Space Agency, also attended the event. Photo: Orbitworks -
The facility is in Abu Dhabi's Kezad economic zone. Photo: Orbitworks -
Orbitworks was formed through a partnership between Abu Dhabi's Marlan Space and San Francisco’s Loft Orbital. Photo: Orbitworks
The satellites have a huge range of commercial applications. Oil companies could monitor thousands of kilometres of pipelines without the need for vehicles, drones or ground crews. Insurers could assess flood damage within hours. Wildfire response agencies could receive heat hazard warnings before a single spark. “You know before the fire will erupt, and you act earlier,” Dr Mohib said.
The defence and security applications are equally compelling. A constellation refreshing images of the Strait of Hormuz every three hours, processed by on-board AI, would represent a significant upgrade in persistent surveillance capability – not only for governments, but also for maritime and energy companies operating in one of the world’s most strategically charged waterways.
Why buy from the West?
Orbitworks has made a deliberate decision to use only US and European components. Dr Mohib frames this as a market access calculation, rather than merely a geopolitical stance. “If we buy from China, we cannot sell to the West,” he said.
The strategy is already bearing fruit: the company has signed its first European customer and is in active discussions with buyers in North America.
The ambition is explicitly global. “Orbitworks is a global satellite company that just happens to be in Abu Dhabi,” Dr Mohib said. “In five to 10 years, I would like to see it be one of the top Earth observation companies.” An IPO is on the table, although he notes it is ultimately the board's decision.
The timing could hardly be better. SpaceX’s recent public listing, at a valuation of more than $1.77 trillion, has placed the space sector firmly in the public consciousness.
Dr Mohib sees SpaceX as a rising tide. “Whether that IPO does well or badly, it has brought space into the living rooms of every household,” he said. “It makes it easier for us to attract investors, to talk to customers.”
Supply chains have been disrupted during the US-Iran war, but Orbitworks has remained on schedule, rerouting procurement through the UAE’s resilient commercial ecosystem, Dr Mohib said. The satellite is on track to be shipped to California this autumn.
App Store moment
The name “Altair” was not selected at random. It is a reference to the 1975 personal computer for which Microsoft wrote Basic, the programme that translated arcane assembly code into plain English and made computing accessible to millions.
“We want to make satellites as simple as Basic made the personal computer,” Dr Mohib said. “Task it with an app. That’s the ambition.”
Dr Mohib hopes his own story will inspire others, and the launch of the Altair satellite is just one chapter. He learnt to negotiate, not in briefing rooms at the UN or in Washington, but while sitting silently at his father’s home in the refugee camps, listening to men make life and death decisions. “I learnt a hell of a lot more from those moments than from any university,” he said.
Whether Orbitworks can become a top-tier global operator within a decade will depend on execution, capital and whether the rest of the world is ready to buy a satellite built in Abu Dhabi. Dr Mohib believes it will be.
“We’re doing rocket science,” he said. “But one bite at a time.”
