The UAE’s Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt is proceeding on schedule for launch in the first quarter of 2028, with its most complex engineering component – a dedicated lander – already through flight-readiness testing.
Mohsen Al Awadhi, Director of the Space Missions Department at the UAE Space Agency, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) that the EMA Lander was designed, developed, assembled and tested entirely within the UAE in under two years.
It has passed the technical and environmental tests required to confirm flight readiness and is now being prepared for transfer to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, where it will be integrated with the main spacecraft, the MBR Explorer, and undergo further testing.
The mission completed its Critical Design Review in 2025 and its System Integration Review in September of the same year. Teams are currently in the assembly, integration and testing phase, working through the explorer’s subsystems before integrating the lander. What follows will be technical and environmental testing of the fully integrated spacecraft, final readiness reviews, and transportation to the launch site in Japan, where Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will support launch operations.
The MBR Explorer will travel approximately five billion kilometres over eight years, making its first asteroid encounter – with 10253 Westerwald – in February 2030.
Its seventh and final destination is 269 Justitia, a body whose spectral characteristics suggest it may have originated in the Kuiper Belt before migrating inward. The lander will separate from the explorer and approach Justitia’s surface to capture detailed images. The explorer will have spent approximately seven months studying the asteroid from orbit before the lander deploys.
Al Awadhi described EMA as the most complex mission in the UAE space programme’s history. Engineering challenges include managing extreme temperature variations near Venus and beyond Mars, executing precise gravity-assist manoeuvres involving Venus, Earth and Mars, and conducting high-speed flybys of small asteroids. Increasing distance from Earth will introduce communications delays and reduced solar power, requiring advanced power management and thermal control systems. The lander is designed to operate autonomously without direct control from Earth.
The mission carries four scientific instruments: a high-resolution camera, a thermal infrared camera, a mid-wavelength infrared spectrometer and a thermal infrared spectrometer. They will examine asteroid terrain, surface characteristics, and mineral and chemical composition, while searching for signs of water and organic compounds. Scientific data will be made available to the international research community.
The Technology Innovation Institute played a central role in building the lander, alongside the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, Khalifa University, New York University Abu Dhabi, Sharjah Space and Astronomy Hub, HEX20 and the National Space Science and Technology Center at UAE University. International partners include NASA, JAXA, the Italian Space Agency and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Around 150 Emirati professionals are participating in the mission, gaining direct experience across spacecraft design, assembly, testing and operations. Half of all mission work has been allocated to private-sector companies. Al Awadhi said the mission builds on experience from the Hope Probe and is intended to be judged not only by its scientific findings but by the engineering capability, competitive companies and institutional expertise it leaves behind.
