Next month marks a turning point for the UAE's space industry. Abu Dhabi-based satellite company Orbitworks will ship Altair-1, the first satellite designed and built in the country for commercial export, to California for testing this autumn before it is launched into orbit later in the year.
Leading that effort is Dr Hamdullah Mohib, acting chief executive of Orbitworks. His path to the role is unlike almost any other in the industry. An engineer by training, he was Afghanistan's ambassador to Washington during the administration of former US president Barack Obama before becoming national security adviser to former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, a role that placed him at the centre of some of the most consequential moments in his country's recent history.
On this episode of The Inside Brief, Dr Mohib joins Manus to discuss what the Orbitworks milestone represents for the UAE's ambition to become a commercial exporter of space technology, why it chose an exclusively US and European technology stack, what the SpaceX IPO - at a valuation of $1.77 trillion - means for the broader sector, and how a constellation of 10 satellites equipped with Nvidia chips could change the way industries, from oil and gas to insurance, interact with Earth observation data.
He also talks about his youth as a refugee in Pakistan, the negotiation lessons he learned at his father's table, and what resilience looks like for someone who has spent a lifetime choosing to put fear aside and seize opportunities as they arise.
The Inside Brief with Manus Cranny is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major platforms.
