KhalifaSat engineers recall tense moments during launch
First test shots of Dubai were of Arabian Gulf and World Islands, but Palm Jumeirah made the cut
The KhalifaSat overcame all challenges before and during launch last week — including a super typhoon that surprisingly changed its path — paving the way for the successful launch of the UAE’s first allEmirati-made satellite.
Emirati engineers in the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) who worked on the KhalifaSat project yesterday shared their experiences while building the satellite and moments before, during, and after its launch on October 29.
The UAE’s third Earth imaging satellite was successfully launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre, an island to the south of Japan, last week.
But five days prior to the launch, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan were bracing for a Category 5 super typhoon, Yutu, the strongest to hit that region in years. Super typhoon Yutu on October 24 devastated the northern Mariana Islands of Saipan, just 2,250km from Tanegashima Island.
This was crucial because one of many considerations for a rocket launch is the weather. Before scheduled lift-offs, a Go/ No-Go decision has to be made to proceed with the launch.
“Alhamdulillah it went past Tanegashima and went [on a different path]. So the team decided to ‘Go’ on the weather,” Abdullah Harmoul, launch manager of KhalifaSat, said.
After conducting all checks, the moment of truth came.
“Just 250 seconds before the launch, I and my colleagues had to decide to push the launch button assigned to MBRSC. But just the pressure of knowing that we had to push the button gave me ■ goosebumps,” Harmoul said. “We were sure we could launch, but when you’re actually there in the moment, [it looked surreal], I can’t even express it. So I contacted my colleagues here in the UAE and the team, and we all agreed to press the button and we did. That was a proud moment for all of us. This is the fruit of our 12 years of labour. At that moment, we had a flashback of all our hard work through the years,” Harmoul said.
The first image captured by the KhalifaSat also had a story, Ammar Al Muhairi, Manager of the Image Processing Section, said. The first two test shots of Dubai were of the Arabian Gulf and the World Islands but they were not processed as they did not meet the imaging criteria.
But when an image of the Palm Jumeirah was beamed back, it made the cut.
Al Muhairi said MBRSC can start providing customers with the first images from the KhalifaSat in the beginning of 2019.
Moving forward, Adnan Al Rais, who headed the ground station on the day of the launch, said the centre has received many requests for data from the KhalifaSat and they expect to meet this demand, especially from UAE entities, next year.
After the successful launch, the KhalifaSat team who worked on the satellite will then work on the Hope Probe, the UAE’s first space exploration of Mars due for launch in July 2020, ensuring knowledge transfer and seamless work on another historic milestone for the country.