UAE expects to send new Astronaut to space in 2 Years: Emirati Space Center

Dubai, Oct 28 (UNI/Sputnik) The United Arab Emirates expects to send another astronaut into orbit in a few years after completing training with NASA, but not necessarily on the US spacecraft, the Assistant Director General for Scientific and Technical Affairs at Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, Salem Al Marri, told Sputnik on Thursday.
“We trained two of our astronauts [Hazzaa Al Mansoori and Sultan Al Neyadi] in Russia and one of them went for a short duration mission. Now we also train our astronauts in NASA, the same ones and the next two that we selected. And we are looking for options of flights,” Al Marri said on the sidelines of the 72nd International Aeronautical Congress in Dubai.
The UAE selected its first two astronauts, Al Mansoori and Al Neyadi, in 2018. In the fall of 2019, Al Mansoori flew to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft.
Al Marri said that the UAE has “selected two astronauts, Mohammad and Nora [Mohammad Al Mulla and Nora Al Matrooshi] … They are now training in Dubai and they will go in December to the US, where they will join candidate class with NASA for two years,” adding that it does not necessarily mean that the astronauts will go to space with NASA, since the country has not currently confirmed its participation in any manned missions.
In response to a question about the prospects for the UAE’s first female astronaut going to space, Al Marri said that “we base on merit, not on gender, age or anything like that… If she succeeds in her training and is strong, she will fly very soon. And I think she has very strong capabilities.”
The assistant director at the UAE’s space center added that his country was “working very closely with Russia” on many projects, including a joint isolation experiment on a spacecraft stimulation, which will start on November 4 and will last 8 months.
In August, the UAE unveiled the names of its two new astronauts, Al Mulla and Al Matrooshi, with Al Matrooshi being the country’s first female astronaut.