Dubai, Feb 16 (IANS/WAM) The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has signed a contract with the Moscow-based international space company Kosmotras (ISCK) for the launch of the United Arab Emirates’ second remote sensing satellite — DubaiSat-2.

The contract was signed between Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, director general of Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, and Dr. Vladimir Andreev, director general of international space company Kosmotras of Russia.

DubaiSat-2, which will be used for remote sensing, weighs around 300 kg and will be placed into a 600 km sun-synchronous orbit.

As per the contract, DubaiSat-2 will be launched on board a Dnepr rocket through the Moscow-based Kosmotras from Yasny cosmodrome in northern Russia by the fourth quarter of 2012, as part of a clustered launch, in which DubaiSat-2 will be the primary satellite on board.

DubaiSat-2 is the second remote sensing satellite owned by the UAE which underscores the country’s determination to possess advanced space technologies to fulfil the needs of scientific and technological research.

–IANS/WAM
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