Our Land & Sky · Demo

UAE in orbit

Right now, satellites built or owned by the UAE are flying over your head. Some race round the Earth; others seem to hang still in the sky. Guess how fast they go, then follow them on the map.

5 minutes
For curious minds, 10 and up
Runs on your device

Build your own orbit

The higher a satellite flies, the slower it goes and the longer one lap takes. Drag the height and watch. The yellow dot on the Earth is the UAE, turning with the planet.

Height above the Earth

Why don't satellites fall down?

They are falling, all the time

Gravity pulls a satellite towards the Earth. But it is also moving sideways so fast that the ground curves away beneath it as it falls. It keeps falling around the planet instead of into it. That is an orbit.

Low means fast

Close to the Earth, gravity is stronger, so a satellite must go faster to stay up: about 7.5 km every second at KhalifaSat's height. That is fast enough to cross the UAE from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah in under a minute.

High means slow

At about 36,000 km above the equator, one lap takes exactly as long as one turn of the Earth. A satellite there seems to stand still over one spot. TV dishes on UAE rooftops point at satellites like these and never need to move.

Why the track drifts west

While a low satellite makes one lap, the Earth turns about 24 degrees under it. So each lap passes over a different strip of land, and over a day it can see almost the whole planet.

What do the UAE's satellites do?

Watch the land

Earth-imaging satellites like KhalifaSat and MBZ-SAT photograph cities, coasts and farms. Planners use the pictures to follow how cities grow and how the land and sea change.

See through dust and cloud

Etihad-SAT uses radar instead of a camera. Radar works at night and through cloud and dust, which helps when disasters strike.

Connect people

High satellites from Yahsat and Thuraya carry TV, internet and satellite phone calls, even to ships at sea and remote deserts where there are no towers.

Train the next engineers

Small "CubeSats" built from 10 cm cubes let university students in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai design, launch and fly a real satellite.

The UAE's road to space

Key moments, from the first satellite to Mars and beyond.

2009
DubaiSat-1The UAE's first Earth-observation satellite reaches orbit.
2014
UAE Space AgencyThe UAE Space Agency is set up, and the country announces a mission to Mars.
2018
KhalifaSatLaunched from Japan on 29 October: the first satellite fully designed and built in the UAE, by Emirati engineers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).
2019
Hazza AlMansooriThe first Emirati in space spends 8 days on the International Space Station, from 25 September to 3 October.
2021
The Hope Probe reaches MarsLaunched from Japan in July 2020, Hope enters orbit around Mars on 9 February 2021. The UAE becomes the fifth country to reach Mars orbit, and the first to do it on its first try. Hope circles Mars once every 55 hours, studying its weather.
2023
Sultan AlNeyadiSpends about six months on the space station (March to September). On 28 April he makes the first spacewalk by an Arab astronaut: 7 hours and 1 minute outside. His crew circled the Earth 2,976 times.
2024
New astronautsNora AlMatrooshi, the first Arab woman to do so, and Mohammad AlMulla graduate from NASA astronaut training.
2025
MBZ-SAT, Etihad-SAT and Arab Satellite 813MBRSC launches MBZ-SAT in January and its first radar satellite, Etihad-SAT, in March. In December, Arab Satellite 813, the first Arab satellite with a hyperspectral camera, launches with UAE Space Agency backing.
2026
Sharjah-Sat-2, and Hope keeps goingSharjah-Sat-2 from the University of Sharjah launches on 30 March. The UAE Space Agency extends the Hope Probe's mission until 2028.
Next
The Moon and the asteroid beltThe first Rashid rover was lost in 2023 when the Japanese lander carrying it crashed. Rashid Rover 2 is built and waiting to fly to the far side of the Moon on an American lander. The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt is planned to launch in 2028.

Sources: Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (mbrsc.ae, satellites programme; Rashid Rover 2 news, November 2025); UAE Space Agency (space.gov.ae: Hope Probe six-year update and 2028 extension, July 2026; Arab Satellite 813 launch, December 2025); Dubai Media Office (Hope Probe science orbit, March 2021; first MBZ-SAT and Etihad-SAT images, October 2025); NASA (Crew-6 return, September 2023; spacewalk of 28 April 2023); Sharjah24 (Sharjah-Sat-2 launch, March 2026). Orbit times and speeds are worked out from public orbital data published by CelesTrak (26 October 2026) using Kepler's laws. Map positions use a simplified model and are approximate: they drift from reality over the weeks after that date. Only civil satellites in public catalogues are shown.