UAE considers initiating its own manned space program
The competition heats up: At a space conference this week in Abu Dhabi, a UAE official said that his country might begin work on a manned space program.
He also said that they plan a follow-up to their Hope Mars mission, which now has a July 2020 launch date.
The UAE’s prime goal right now with their space effort is to promote the development of a new aerospace industry. Thus, I do not expect them to accomplish much in the near future. Even their Mars mission is I think mostly being built and launched by others (India is helping with the spacecraft and Japan is launching it). In the long term, however, this effort is wise, and will eventually produce for them a real industry.
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The competition heats up: At a space conference this week in Abu Dhabi, a UAE official said that his country might begin work on a manned space program.
He also said that they plan a follow-up to their Hope Mars mission, which now has a July 2020 launch date.
The UAE’s prime goal right now with their space effort is to promote the development of a new aerospace industry. Thus, I do not expect them to accomplish much in the near future. Even their Mars mission is I think mostly being built and launched by others (India is helping with the spacecraft and Japan is launching it). In the long term, however, this effort is wise, and will eventually produce for them a real industry.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Thus, I do not expect them to accomplish much in the near future. Even their Mars mission is I think mostly being built and launched by others
But what will their industry look like?
Purchasing services and products from others is exactly how a free market in space should operate. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just buy the wheel and use it for their own purposes. Operating like this means their capabilities will increase as the market’s capabilities increase.
The UAE has smart leaders. I wish all arape countries did the same. They only oppress their own population but invites peacefully the rest of the world to invest there tax free. That’s how people can co-exist with the arapes. Of course they won’t be able to manufacture any rocket, but they pay for others to do it, and that’s good.