29 Feb Italy and the UAE into space

Over the last few days Italian Space Agency president Roberto Battiston signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Abu Dhabi with UAE Space Agency representative Khalifa Mohammed Al Rumaithi (Chairman of the Board of Directors).

The five-year agreement will be renewed automatically and involves a framework agreement that will include, as and when, joint bilateral cooperation projects focusing on a pacific use of space.

This is why there will also be a series of conferences and technological-scientific and industrial exchanges will be promoted as well.

For the UAE the most ambitious objective of the agreement is sending a probe on Mars in 2021 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the UAE. The mission has been called Hope Mars Probe.