UAE asteroid-belt probe clears vibration tests ahead of its 2028 launch

9 October 2026

The UAE-built probe for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt has completed vibration testing and is undergoing thermal vacuum tests ahead of a launch in March 2028.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, viewed a flight-identical model of the probe, developed by Abu Dhabi's Technology Innovation Institute.
The mother spacecraft, MBR Explorer, is to launch in a three-week window in March 2028 on an eight-year journey of about five billion kilometres.
It will use gravity assists around Venus, Earth and Mars, conduct fly-bys of six asteroids and reach the asteroid 269 Justitia in 2036.
The deployable probe will descend on a ballistic trajectory with no propulsion to slow it, striking Justitia at between 15 and 27 metres per second and possibly excavating a crater.
About 40 people worked on the probe over 18 months, according to the Technology Innovation Institute.
Justitia is of scientific interest because its spectrum more closely resembles objects in the distant Kuiper Belt than its neighbours in the main belt.