UAE, France ink cooperation deal on space exploration

The United Arab Emirates and France signed in Dubai Sunday a deal on cooperation in space exploration.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister as well as Ruler of Dubai, and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe attended the signing ceremony of the cooperation deal between the UAE Space Agency and France’s National Center for Space Studies.

The signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the three-day 2018 World Government Summit which started on Sunday.

Also at the summit held under topic “Shaping future governments,” the final designs of the Hope Probe, the Arab World’s first interplanetary mission, were unveiled, along with details of the Mars 2117 plan, which aims to create the first human settlement on Mars, and UAE’s astronauts programme.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre also released plans of the “KhalifaSat,” the UAE’s first completely indigenously built satellite.