The launch was rescheduled after the rocket, which will transport 38 foreign payloads from 18 countries to space, was found to be in good working order.

The launch of four Arab satellites, including the UAE's atmosphere nanosat, has been postponed again as the Russian space agency double-checks the rocket that will take the payloads into space. The initial launch attempt on March 20 had already been postponed due to a voltage spike in the Fregat upper stage.

Fregat is a universal upper stage that can be used in medium and heavy-class launch vehicles. It is used in some Soyuz and Zenit rockets. The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will launch 38 payloads from 18 countries into space, including two from Saudi Arabia, one from the United Arab Emirates, and one from Tunisia. The CAS500-1 spacecraft from South Korea is the primary payload.

The upper stage will be tested again, according to Dmitry Rogozin, director-general of Russian space agency Roscosmos. If the results are satisfactory, the launch will successfully take place on March 22.

“On March 20, a commission meeting took place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, during which the results of tests of the Soyuz-2.1a space rocket were considered, including a technical failure discovered this morning,” Roscosmos said in a statement. He further

adds, that the members of the commission agreed to begin Monday morning on March 22 after hearing the reports of the work supervisors.

Around 35 minutes before lift-off, the launch was called off. Because of this, initially, a 24-hour delay was announced, but then a launch date of March 22 was announced. The United Arab Emirates is launching DMSat-1, a nanometric environment satellite. It will aid in the development of an air quality map of the UAE by the Dubai Municipality and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), as it tracks air pollutant sources throughout the Emirates.

“The satellite will be equipped with scientific instruments that will detect air pollution, track greenhouse gases –methane and carbon dioxide – and air-water concentrations,” said Adnan Al Rais, DMSat-1 program director at MBRSC.

The Shaheen Sat satellite from Saudi Arabia will be used for photography and maritime monitoring. The second satellite was built by university students for educational purposes. Tunisia's first satellite, Challenge One, was scheduled to launch on March 20, on the country's Independence Day. The satellite will concentrate on the Internet of Things and will be the first of 30 satellites in a constellation.

In 2019, the Arab Space Cooperation Group was created and it includes more than 11 Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa. Arab countries seem to have resurrected or started new space programs since the organization's inception. Saudi Arabia has expanded its funding for space exploration and is proposing missions to Mars and the Moon.