The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is on the hunt for a landing vehicle that can take its Rashid 2 rover to the Moon's surface, an Emirati space official has said.
The space centre's first Rashid rover, on the country's maiden Moon mission, crash-landed on the lunar surface last year after the soft landing planned for the vehicle carrying it failed.
Adnan Al Rais, one of the assistant directors general at MBRSC, said at a media briefing on Thursday that they were monitoring the progress of space agencies and companies working on lunar landers.
Securing a lunar landing vehicle is crucial for MBRSC because it provides the essential technology for safely delivering the rover to the surface.
During the media briefing, MBRSC officials also gave updates on other projects that engineers and scientists were working on, including the MBZ-Sat satellite.
Named after President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the satellite is expected to be the most powerful imaging satellite in the region.
The space centre secured a launch on a rideshare mission on a SpaceX rocket, with a launch expected some time this year.
Only the US, the former Soviet Union, China and most recently India have been able to successfully carry out a soft lunar landing, which is when the vehicle touches down gently on the surface without crashing, so its hardware and instruments stay intact.
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