Dubai – Mubasher: Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, has met the first Emirati astronauts Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi.
They were selected among 4,022 applicants for the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre’s (MBRSC) UAE astronaut programme, launched in December 2017.
The UAE Astronaut Programme will build a national team of Emiratis who will be fully trained and prepared to fly into space and board the International Space Station (ISS) to conduct research and experiments and inspire a whole new generation of Emiratis.
The program aims to send four Emirati astronauts into space by 2021, in addition to establishing an infrastructure for the UAE space industry.
Both Al Mansouri and Neyadi have completed extensive training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia.
Under the programme, one of the astronauts will be joining a crew comprised of a Russian commander and an American astronaut in Soyuz MS-12 spaceflight, which is planned to launch to ISS by the end of 2019.
Hamdan, the chairman of the MBRSC, noted that the astronauts’ mission was to conduct a number of tests, which is an important step for future projects that the UAE aims to undertake.
