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UAE’s Nora Al Matrooshi, the first female Emirati trainee astronaut is all set to graduate from NASA’s astronaut training program early next year. After graduation, Nora will become eligible to join US-led space missions starting next year.
Nora Al Matrooshi and her colleague Mohammed Al Mulla, have been training to become UAE’s space corps. The training has been taking place at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, since January last year and is expected to end soon.
UAE’s latest and most young trainee astronauts, Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla are following the path of Hazza Al Mansouri (the first Emirati in space) and Sultan Al Neyadi (who is in the Arab world’s longest space mission abroad).
“As part of Nasa’s 2021 astronaut candidate class training program, Emirati astronauts Nora Al Mastrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla recently completed a series of rigorous training exercises in the USA. They are set to graduate in early 2024 as flight-eligible astronauts,” in the words of a Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre representative.
Arab Astronauts In Space Wilderness
Maj Al Mansouri and Dr.Sultan Al Neyadi graduated from the trainee program last year. Ms. Matrooshi became the first Arab woman to be chosen for an astronaut corps mission back in 2020, and Saudi Arabia’s Rayyanah Barnawi was the first Arab woman to go on a space mission (an eight-day trip to ISS).
Looks like the Emirati young trailblazers are ready to enter the uncharted territory of Space Wilderness, ready to sharing their culture with other people, help build bridges and enhances collaboration. Their stories inspire others to do the hard work and follow their dreams.
Their journey and future space missions
According to a video released by Nasa, on Thursday, featuring Ms. Al Matrooshi and Mr. al Mulla during their training sessions at the Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
The two Emirati astronauts have carried out a survival training course in a remote forest at the US Army Aviation Centre of Excellence in Fort Rucker, Alabama. Together with their NASA colleagues, they acquired the skills to construct fires, erect shelters, and procure sustenance and water.
About Maj Al Mansouri and Dr Al Neyadi, they completed their survival training in Russia in 2018. After spending a year at the Gagarin Astronaut Training Centre in Moscow, which included days in the wilderness in freezing temperatures, they deveoped their skills.
Ms. Nora Al Matrooshi and Mr. Mohammed Al Mulla also explored the V20 Thermal Vacuum Chamber at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Alabama, which is currently being used to simulate lunar environments. They learned how to wear a spacewalking suit, which weighs about 130kg at Nasa’s neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston..
What next? The two trainee astronauts will also learn how to fly T-38 supersonic jets and about the systems of the space station to complete the training process. However, it is not clear if any space mission has been secured yet for the astronauts after they graduate.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, responsible for overseeing the country’s astronaut program, has announced their intention to send astronauts into space every three to five years. In 2019, Maj Al Mansouri embarked on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), while Dr Al Neyadi arrived at the station on March 3 for a six-month sojourn.
However, with plans to retire the ISS by the end of this decade, Emirati astronauts are likely to find opportunities on private space stations and participate in lunar flights as part of NASA’s Artemis program, contingent upon the UAE securing a deal with the United States.
Companies such as Blue Origin and Axiom Space are envisioning the construction of low-Earth orbit stations that would welcome paying customers on board. Meanwhile, government-run agencies like NASA are aiming for crewed missions to the Moon and beyond.
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