The UAE had launched seven satellites before its space agency came into being, all of them built by foreign companies such as Europe"s EADS, Boeing in the US and South Korea"s Satrec Initiative. It was only in 2018 that the nation was able to actually design its own: the KhalifaSat Earth-sensing satellite, which was built by a team of Emirati engineers in South Korea at Satrec Initiative"s facilities.