French Space Days 2026, organized by Business France, took French space companies to Abu Dhabi and Muscat, with Global Stratalogues taking part and publishing a report on the events, all just weeks after Altair-1, the first commercial satellite built in the UAE, reached orbit on a SpaceX rocket from California.
French Space Days 2026 was a French space industry mission to the United Arab Emirates and Oman this October, and the new Global Stratalogues report on it makes one central finding: the Gulf’s space race is no longer only about who can buy the most satellites. It is about who can build them.
In Abu Dhabi on October 12, 15 French space companies met more than 20 Emirati organizations. Four days later, the delegation was in Muscat for Oman’s first French Space Days.
The timing is hard to miss. Ten days before the Abu Dhabi meeting, Altair-1 lifted off on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It is the first commercial satellite designed, assembled and tested in the United Arab Emirates. France’s space agency, CNES, has already signed up as a customer.
A satellite factory in the desert
Altair-1 was built by Orbitworks, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s Marlan Space and San Francisco’s Loft Orbital. It launched on October 2, sent its first signal home, and began work. It watches the Earth to help with disaster response, spot early wildfires, track ships that switch off their transponders, and monitor crops and the environment.
It is only the start. Altair-1 is the first of 10 AI-powered satellites planned for the constellation, with the other nine due next year. Once complete in 2027, the network should be able to revisit any point on Earth about every four hours. Each satellite carries five sensors, from ordinary cameras to thermal and hyperspectral imagers.
Orbitworks’ facility in Abu Dhabi is the first in the Middle East dedicated to commercial satellite production. At full speed it can turn out up to 50 satellites a year, roughly one a week.
“Two years ago, Orbitworks was an idea. Today, a satellite built in Abu Dhabi is in orbit,” Orbitworks CEO Dr Hamdullah Mohib told The National. He said the UAE is now a builder of space capability, not only a buyer.
Inside Orbitworks’ satellite cleanroom in Abu Dhabi, the first facility in the Middle East dedicated to commercial satellite production. It can build up to 50 satellites a year.
Why France was in the room
That shift from buyer to builder was the theme in Abu Dhabi. French Space Days UAE 2026 was organized by Business France, CNES and the Embassy of France, with support from the UAE Space Agency. It was hosted at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
The day packed in keynotes, four panel discussions, seven company pitches and eight rounds of one-on-one business meetings. Almost half the French delegation was visiting the Emirates for the first time.
French Ambassador Marie Audouard described a move away from simple sales toward joint development and joint manufacturing, with the two countries “building together.”
Ibrahim AlQasim, Deputy Director General of the UAE Space Agency, summed up the mood in three words: “space means business.”
The partnership already runs both ways. In August, CNES bought capacity on the Orbitworks constellation, meaning a European space agency is now a customer of a satellite network made in the UAE. Emirati investment is also flowing into French space companies.
Five things the report found
- Sovereignty is built, not bought. Countries want to make their own decisions about critical space systems. Partners who share skills and build locally are welcome; those who only ship hardware are less so.
- The relationship goes both ways. Money, contracts and know-how now move from the UAE to France as well as the other way.
- Data is where the money is. The value is shifting from the satellites themselves to what their data can do, from flood forecasting to tracking ships at sea.
- Infrastructure is being shared. Like mobile phone companies that share cell towers and compete on service, space firms are starting to share ground stations, spaceports and standards.
- Resilience matters. With orbits getting crowded, keeping track of objects in space, protecting navigation signals and servicing satellites in orbit have become strategic priorities.
