UAE to send first Emirati astronaut to International Space Station for 6-months mission

Just days after announcing the discovery of a new type of aurora on Mars, the UAE has made significant progress in its space sector. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE revealed on Friday that the deal is signed between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and Axiom Space, at the UAE Embassy in Washington, United States. Under the new agreement, the country will send its astronaut for a 180-day-long mission, making it the 11th country to do so. 

In his tweet posted earlier today, Al Maktoum wrote, "A new station for the space sector in the UAE with the signing of a new agreement to send the first Arab astronaut for a 180-day long mission to the International Space Station... The UAE will be the 11th country in history to send a long-term mission to space (sic)."

Notably, the name of the astronaut has not been revealed yet but he/she would be the first Emirati to visit outer space after Hazza Al Mansouri. In 2019, Mansouri became the first astronaut from the middle east to send an astronaut and put the UAE on the list of nations to send a human into space. Meanwhile, the yet-to-be-named astronaut will launch to the ISS in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket which would liftoff under the Crew-6 mission no earlier than April 2023. 

UAE prepares astronauts for manned flights

UAE started revealing the names of its astronauts who would visit space in the following years. Recently, the country named three candidates apart from Al Mansouri-- Sultan Al Neyadi, Mohammed Al Mulla, and Nora Al Matrooshi. While Al Neyadi is a former IT professional, Al Mulla is a helicopter pilot and Al Matrooshi is a mechanical engineer. Interestingly, Al Matrooshi is on her way to becoming the first Arab woman who is training to visit space. 

The astronauts are training at NASA's Johnson Space Centre and are preparing for their future mission under the assistance of the US space agency.