The United Arab Emirates has adopted the National Space Strategy 2031, setting out an ambitious framework to expand the country’s space economy and entrench its position as a leading global space power.
The strategy is built around three pillars: cultivating a resilient and investment-attractive space ecosystem, deepening global partnerships and market access, and developing competitive infrastructure. Key targets include doubling space economy revenues, ranking the UAE among the world’s top 10 space economies by 2031, and growing the number of national companies, export markets, and space-related investments. The UAE has so far developed 30 satellites, with more than 170 entities now active across the sector.
The strategy’s adoption coincides with the International Day of Human Space Flight and follows a series of recent milestones. Earlier this year, the UAE extended the Emirates Mars Mission until 2028, having released more than 10 terabytes of scientific data and contributed to over 35 peer-reviewed studies since launch. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre released fresh high-resolution imagery from the MBZ-SAT satellite in January, marking one year since its launch. In March, a royal decree established the Sharjah Space and Astronomy Complex alongside the launch of Sharjah Sat-2, a CubeSat designed for high-resolution spectral data collection.
