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SARsatX Prepares First Saudi-Made Commercial Satellite
Saudi space technology company SARsatX has enjoyed a busy World Defense Show 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, laying the groundwork for the launch of the first Saudi-made commercial satellite.
The company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the National Industrial Development Center (NIDC) to support the development of an advanced facility for the manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing (MAIT) of satellites in the Kingdom.
CEO Amru Alamoudi said “the factory will be built and established within 12 months, and within two years we want to be able to produce and launch into orbit the first ‘Made in Saudi’ commercial satellite. The NIDC supports us by facilitating enablement in terms of tax exemption, discounted land, facilitating investment, financial grants, non-equity and expertise. It is a comprehensive support for satellite development.”
During the show, the company also signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) with Antaris, a global artificial intelligence (AI) for space company, and MetaSensing. The MOU with Antaris will support the deployment of an initial constellation of 16 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical satellites. The MOU with MetaSensing will foster the development and localization of space-borne SAR payload technologies. This will combine SARsatX’s expertise in radar sensor design and data provision with MetaSensing’s advanced capabilities in space-qualified SAR payload development.
Alamoudi says “the payload will be co-developed in Saudi, with Meta’s expertise, which will transfer the technology and knowledge of a hardware that we can develop together.”
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