Orbitworks puts the first UAE-built commercial satellite in orbit

On 1 October 2026 Orbitworks launched Altair-1, the first commercial satellite designed, assembled and tested in the UAE, on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg in California. The satellite has reached sun-synchronous orbit, sent its first signals and begun commissioning.

Orbitworks is a joint venture formed in 2024 between Abu Dhabi's Marlan Space, part of International Holding Company (IHC), and San Francisco-based Loft Orbital. "Two years ago, Orbitworks was an idea. Today, a satellite built in Abu Dhabi is in orbit," said Dr Hamdullah Mohib, CEO of Orbitworks and Marlan Space.

Intelligence, not images

Each Altair satellite carries five types of sensor: optical (sub-metre), short-wave infrared, thermal, hyperspectral and radio frequency. Onboard NVIDIA GPUs run AI models in orbit, so customers receive analysis-ready outputs, such as an early-stage wildfire or a vessel running dark, rather than raw imagery to process on the ground.

Orbitworks describes this as a cloud model for space: customers access intelligence on demand without owning the infrastructure. Altair-1 is the first of ten satellites. With the other nine due in 2027, the constellation should revisit any point on Earth roughly every four hours.

The UAE is no longer only a buyer of space capability; it is a builder of it.

A factory and a customer base

The satellite was built in Orbitworks' 50,000 sq ft facility in KEZAD, Abu Dhabi, opened in November 2025 with a 15,000 sq ft cleanroom and capacity for up to 50 satellites a year at full scale, the first commercial satellite factory in the Middle East. Anchor customers include France's space agency CNES, which reserved capacity across all ten satellites, the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

In September 2026 Marlan Space and Loft Orbital announced Altair-Next Gen, a $1 billion programme to grow the constellation from 10 to 50 satellites, with Mistral AI for onboard language models, BlackSky for very high-resolution optical satellites and MaiaSpace as preferred launch provider. The same month, IHC agreed to acquire 80% of Marlan Space.

Why it matters for the Gulf

The UAE's National Space Strategy 2031 aims to place the country among the world's ten leading space economies, and "Make it in the Emirates" pushes for local manufacturing. Orbitworks turns both into an industrial asset: a factory, a constellation and a data product that can be exported. For defence and security customers, sovereign, multi-sensor intelligence with onboard AI is a capability that previously had to be bought from abroad.

What to watch

Commissioning results for Altair-1 and the launch of the nine follow-on satellites in 2027; ramp-up of the KEZAD factory towards one satellite a week; conversion of talks with customers in North America, Africa and Asia into contracts; and how the European partnerships with CNES, Mistral AI and MaiaSpace develop into a Gulf–Europe space corridor.