Abu Dhabi, UAE: [August 6, 2026] – Orbitworks, the UAE’s commercial satellite constellation production and operation company, announced that CNES, the French Space Agency, has secured capacity of Altair, the ten-satellite, AI-enabled Earth observation constellation owned, manufactured, and integrated by Orbitworks in Abu Dhabi. CNES secures dedicated capacity to support the development of sovereign capabilities through a multi-year contract with Loft Orbital, the mission operations partner in the Orbitworks joint venture.
This arrangement reflects growing international confidence in advanced space capabilities designed, manufactured, and integrated in the UAE, and marks one of the first instances of a European government space agency becoming a customer of a satellite constellation owned and built in the Middle East. In addition to CNES, Altair capacity is serving a growing base of UAE and international stakeholders.
Orbitworks is currently manufacturing and integrating all ten Altair satellites at its 50,000-square-foot assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) facility in Abu Dhabi’s KEZAD economic zone, the only facility of its kind in the region built for commercial-scale satellite production.
Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, Acting CEO, Orbitworks, said: “This agreement is a strong signal of trust in what we have built in Abu Dhabi. A major European space agency choosing to secure capacity on a UAE-built and UAE-integrated constellation shows that the infrastructure, talent, and technology developed here now stand on the global stage. Altair was designed to serve exactly this kind of international demand, and we are proud to deliver it.”
Pierre-Damien Vaujour, Founder and CEO of Loft said: “The launch of this programme is part of a rapid transformation of institutional needs for reliable, ready-to-use information. Rapid global change is driving public entities to invest in proactive, Earth observation capabilities that support civil security, maritime activities, disaster response and environmental monitoring.”
Altair is a next-generation, multi-sensor Earth observation constellation with onboard AI processing and inter-satellite communications, designed to deliver persistent monitoring and actionable intelligence to government and commercial users worldwide.
Orbitworks is in the final stages of testing for the first Altair satellite, which is manifested for launch in the coming months. The full ten-satellite constellation will be deployed over the following 12 months.
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For media information, please contact:
Katherine Raso
Katherine.raso@orbitworks.ae