Europe's space chief looks to the UAE for collaborations on Moon exploration

A European satellite that sees beneath the sand could help transform understanding of the Gulf’s desert surfaces.

Since launching last year, Biomass has already found old riverbeds and ancient settlements buried under sand and soil around the world.

It is one of the space technologies that the head of the European Space Agency will highlight in his first visit to the UAE next week – in his bid to work more closely on critical missions related to Moon exploration and Earth observation.

Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, told The National that collaborations with the UAE had become a “strategic priority” for the agency, thanks to the rapid growth of Abu Dhabi's national space programme, and of its private space industry.

Show caption: European Space Agency director general Josef Aschbacher. Pho…

ESA – which is preparing to deploy research and infrastructure equipment on the Moon in the next decade – hopes it can work with the UAE’s Rashid lunar rover programme, which will scout and analyse the lunar surface.

Those activities would help pave the way for building stations on the Moon, Dr Aschbacher said. “All this is being built up step by step and therefore such a lunar rover is a very important element to scope and scout what the area looks like, where to go and where to build future infrastructure,” he said. “But it’s just the beginning of more to come.”

The visit comes at a critical time for ESA. The agency has sought to engage in more partnerships after US President Donald Trump sought funding cuts to the Nasa space programme, threatening its collaborations with its European counterpart.

The rapid growth of a private space exploration industry is also forcing agencies such as ESA to adapt their models.

Show caption: Desert structures in Chad pictured by ESA's Biomass satellit…

Lunar exploration

The UAE has ambitions to be one of the world’s 10 leading space economies by 2031.

Altair-1, the first commercial satellite to be built entirely in the UAE, was launched this month from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California aboard the Transporter-18 ride-share mission.

“The UAE is a very strong emerging space nation. It’s very impressive what they’ve been doing so far. This is a priority for me to really reinforce links with the UAE,” Dr Aschbacher said.

Of particular interest in his visit are the UAE’s plans to build and launch three lunar rovers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

The first, named Rashid 1, crashed upon landing on the moon in 2022 due to an altitude miscalculation. Rashid 2 is set to be carried to space next year on the Blue Ghost II Mission by the US-based company Firefly Aerospace. Rashid 3 is being built to launch in 2029.

Show caption: The lunar rover Rashid II will be deployed next year. Photo:…

Mr Aschbacher hopes to discuss a potential trilateral mission named LUNA Bridge that would involve the UAE's rover flown by the Japanese company ispace with ESA. “We have a next-generation lander that is being developed, and the joint project could be that ESA, together with the UAE and possibly Japan, could launch a mission,” Mr Aschbacher said.

The lander would fly to the lunar surface and offload the rover, which would then conduct experiments on the Moon’s surface. “We could test technology that is very challenging, and on the other side gain science and understand much better how the lunar surface will look like for future activities,” he said.

The other purpose of the trip will be to find opportunities to fly Emirati astronauts alongside European ones.

Among these is an opportunity to join ESA’s EPIC flight to the international space station, envisioned for 2028. The agency will charter a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, in order to give more space flight opportunities to its astronauts.

Non-ESA astronauts can also join the four-person mission, an opportunity which has been proposed to Abu Dhabi, Mr Aschbacher said.

Show caption: Training for human and robotic moon exploration is under way…

Hazza Al Mansouri was the first Emirati astronaut in space in 2019, where he stayed eight days on the ISS. Sultan Al Neyadi flew aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour to the ISS, on a six month mission.

Two more Emirati astronauts have not flown yet: Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla, who graduated from Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in March 2024.

Dr Aschbacher will meet representatives of the UAE space agency and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, as well as space tech companies that are burgeoning in the country. He will also meet space companies such as Space42, a satellite communications company, and Orbit Works, which is building space infrastructure in the UAE.

The growing partnerships between European and UAE-based space companies is also a key driver of the visit. Orbit Works is currently working with the French-American space infrastructure company Loft Orbital.

“The UAE has very good capacity to build up strength, capacity for its own purpose but also for export and international co-operation,” he said.

ESA is working on its Argonaut lander project to transport six tonnes of equipment over four missions that would help study and build up the surface of the moon in the future.

There are also plans to build a constellation of satellites orbiting the Moon, to allow for navigation and communications on the surface, as well as communications back to Earth.

Growing competition

But the growth of a highly competitive private space industry poses a challenge for ESA’s bid. It was ispace that took Rashid 1 to the Moon on the first failed mission. Ispace’s second attempted landing in 2025 also failed. Meanwhile, competitor Firefly Aerospace has already conducted a successful landing to the moon.

Mr Ashchbacher said the agency’s expertise in training astronauts, lunar activities and Earth observation gathered over decades is incomparable.

But he added that the agency’s model of 23 member states means it is shielded from the political volatility that affects national agencies. “Once we agree on a co-operation with another partner, this co-operation stays and is not changing with an election in one country or another country,” he said.

“That means if we promise investments on our side as part of this co-operation, we always deliver.”

Show caption: Emirati astronaut Hazza Al Mansoori. UAE Presidential Court

That holds, he insisted, even with the rise of fringe politics in Europe and growing criticism of multilateral institutions. He pointed to the agency’s latest record-breaking budget, in which member states volunteered €22.3 billion for three years, 32 per cent higher than the previous funding round.

Mr Aschbacher also envisions an “open-ended and long-term” co-operation with the UAE that goes beyond the proposed project for a single rover.

Such an agreement would see the agencies work together for a period of at least 10 years on key themes such as space exploration, Earth observation or telecommunication. “This is valuable and much more powerful because within this framework co-operation, you can then insert many projects that are of shorter duration and smaller scale,” he said.

He was also undeterred by the fact that war is raging in the Gulf – saying that there were no signs yet at the UAE’s space infrastructure was at risk. “I’ve not heard or seen any of those targets to be at risk,” he said.

Rather, he hopes a stronger collaboration would help to use space technology to strengthen security. “The UAE has a need to protect itself, and space is playing an important role in that. The technology that we have and can offer in such co-operations is quite of interest, from intelligence communications and many other things,” he said.