The United Arab Emirates announced on Friday April 29 the sending of an astronaut into space for a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), "
a new stage
" in the space ambitions of the rich country of the Gulf.
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A “
new milestone
” has been reached with “
the signing of a new agreement to send the first Arab astronaut for a 180-day long mission to the International Space Station
”, tweeted the vice-president of the Emirates and ruler of Dubai , Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum.
“
I am proud of the youth of the Emirates
,” he added.
According to the Emirati daily The National, the agreement was signed on Wednesday between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) and Axiom Space, at the Emirates Embassy in Washington.
The astronaut will be part of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2023, according to the same source.
Newcomers to the world of space exploration, the United Arab Emirates, which has seven emirates including those of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, quickly left their mark there.
They sent the first Emirati into space in September 2019 for an eight-day mission, aboard a Soyuz rocket from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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In July of the same year, the oil-rich country launched, from Japan's Tanegashima space center, an unmanned spacecraft carrying the "
Hope
" probe around Mars orbit, as part of the first interplanetary mission. of the Arab world.
The Emirates also planned to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024.