Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre delegation visits EGA to discuss use of aluminium in space

Aluminium has been the primary material in spaceflight since the first satellite was launched in 1957. In order to explore potential collaboration and use of UAE-made aluminium in space, a delegation from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre led by Director General Salem Al Marri visited Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA).

Salem Al Marri, Director-General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, was welcomed by EGA's Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban and the company's top technicians at the company's Jebel Ali location in Dubai. The team inspected EGA's cutting-edge research and development facilities, casthouse, and labs during their visit.

“We look forward to close cooperation with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre as the UAE’s aluminium industry contributes to our nation’s space ambitions. Aluminium is lightweight, strong, and infinitely recyclable, and has been a key material in the aerospace sector since the dawn of flight. I look forward to EGA’s UAE-made low carbon metal leaving our planet as part of UAE-made spacecraft,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA.

Aluminium's status as the metal of choice for spacecraft and their components remains unrivalled, thanks to its ability to work under tremendous stress, pressure, and low temperatures. The two parties explored prospective synergies such as the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre's usage of EGA metal in the building of its next spacecraft, laboratory capabilities, high-end machinery and fabrication facilities, and material procurement.

 “I am thankful for the opportunity to visit one of the UAE’s most innovative industrial companies. Through EGA, the UAE is a major global producer of aluminium, a metal essential for the exploration of space. We look forward to potential future opportunities of collaboration with EGA, and to preparing new generations of Emirati engineers, experts, and researchers on the future strategic, sustainable, and scientific achievements of the UAE’s space sector,” said Salem Al Marri, Director General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre.

EGA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre visited each other's facilities and collaborated on a series of webinars on the importance of innovation in space exploration and the aluminium industry. EGA's goal for the next several decades is to be a technological trailblazer for the worldwide aluminium industry, including in the adoption of Industry 4.0, to strengthen the company's position as the technology supplier of choice, and to build a dynamic industrial innovation ecosystem in the UAE.

EGA collaborates with clients and academics on creative initiatives to produce new alloys and better understand the mechanical characteristics of existing alloys. EGA is one of the most inventive enterprises in the UAE and has developed its aluminium smelting technique for over 25 years. DX+ Ultra, EGA's most recent technology, is one of the most efficient in the worldwide aluminium sector. Since the 1990s, the firm has rebuilt all of its older manufacturing lines with its technology and was the first UAE industrial company to licence its core process technology abroad.