On 5 Oct 2026 the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) announced that it has finished building the probe for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA). The UAE‑built device will travel to Colorado, USA, for final integration with the MBR Explorer spacecraft ahead of a planned 2028 launch. Its primary objective is to land on asteroid 269 Justitia, which would make the body only the seventh asteroid ever reached on the surface by a probe.
Probe Built in Abu Dhabi Readies for Colorado Integration
TII’s Propulsion and Space Research Center designed, built and tested the probe end‑to‑end in Abu Dhabi. The effort was carried out in close collaboration with the UAE Space Agency, the research consortium HEX20, Khalifa University and the National Space Science and Technology Center at UAE University. The completed hardware is now being shipped to Colorado for the final integration step with the MBR Explorer, the mission’s carrier spacecraft.
“If you want to build serious technological capability, you take on a problem that forces you to push further. For this mission, that means a probe that must make decisions and operate on its own in deep space.”
— H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General, Advanced Technology Research Council
Al Bannai, who also serves on the UAE Supreme Space Council, said the achievement expands the nation’s sovereign capability even though the launch remains a few years away. He highlighted that solving a difficult problem paves the way for larger goals. The probe, the mission’s only deployable payload, will separate from MBR Explorer at the furthest point of the flight and then operate fully autonomously, capturing close‑range images and excavating the asteroid’s surface to reveal its composition.
A signing ceremony was held in Abu Dhabi where H.E. Faisal Al Bannai and H.E. Belhoul Al Falasi, Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, signed a model of the probe, underscoring the high‑level support for the project.
Mission Aims for Historic Landing on Asteroid 269 Justitia
The probe will image two planets and seven asteroids as it traverses the main belt, flying past six asteroids before rendezvousing with and landing on the seventh, 269 Justitia. The asteroid is among the reddest bodies observed in the belt and its spectrum more closely resembles Kuiper‑Belt objects than neighboring asteroids, suggesting it formed in the cold outer Solar System before migrating inward during the early Solar System’s history.
Scientists believe Justitia’s surface is coated with complex organic material produced by irradiation of ice, offering a rare window into the primordial ingredients that may have contributed to water and volatiles on the inner planets. Reaching such a body without a decade‑long voyage to the Kuiper Belt gives the international scientific community access to material otherwise far beyond practical reach, potentially shedding light on how water and organic compounds were distributed as the planets formed.
The successful landing would not only mark a technical milestone for the UAE but also add valuable data to global understanding of asteroid composition and Solar System evolution.