RUAG Space partners with UAE’s MBRSC on satnav services

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center builds and operates Earth observation satellites. (Photo: MBRSC)

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will use a RUAG Space GNSS navigation receiver to determine the position of its new satellite. Founded in 2006, MBRSC is home to the UAE National Space Program.

RUAG Space’s LEORIX receiver will precisely determine the satellite’s position in orbit, with an accuracy of about 1 meter. The high accuracy is achieved through simultaneously processing of multi-frequency signals from GPS and Galileo satellites.

The LEORIX receiver from RUAG Space. (Photo: RUAG Space)

Based in Switzerland, RUAG Space offers three types of space-hardened navigation receivers. The LEORIX for low Earth orbit, the GEORIX for geostationary Earth orbit and the PODRIX for precise orbit determination are all based on the European Space Agency’s latest GNSS processing technology.

The PODRIX receiver had its maiden flight to space in November 2020 and precisely determines the position of the European environmental satellite Sentinel-6. The LEORIX receiver flew for the first time in space in March 2021. In total, more than 80 receivers of the latest receiver generation (LEORIX, GEORIX and PODRIX) have been ordered by customers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. They will be launched for different low-Earth and geostationary orbit missions within the next months and years.

The MBRSC builds and operates Earth observation satellites, offering imaging and data analysis services to clients around the world. The center launched the first Emirati-made satellite, KhalifaSat, in 2018, and the DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2 satellites in 2009 and 2013 respectively. MBRSC is also responsible for the Emirates Mars Mission Hope probe, the first Arab interplanetary mission, which is collecting data from the Red Planet.