Emirati space mission likely to get a new date
dubai — The first Emirati astronaut will be heading to space in 2019. However, it is unlikely to happen on the originally scheduled date of April 5 due to the launch failure of the Soyuz MS-10 mission two months ago.
It was announced by Nasa on Monday that astronaut Nick Hague, who was the commander on the aborted mission, will be heading off to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 28 onboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft — a mission that was originally scheduled for April 5 and would have had a UAE astronaut, another Nasa commander and cosmonaut on the flight.
On October 11, Hague and two other astronauts had to carry out a ballistic re-entry into Earth after they experienced a failure in the rocket’s booster. Dramatic video footage from a camera attached on the outer body of the spacecraft was released by the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, last month which showed an improper separation of the rockets.
All space flights were put on hold by Roscosmos after the incident. However, it has already successfully sent astronauts to the ISS again onboard the Soyuz MS-11 mission, which took off on December 3 — a mission that was originally scheduled for December 20. Now, the Soyuz MS-12 has also been booked for an advance launch date of February 28, instead of April 5, making it unclear which mission the UAE astronaut would be going on.
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, told the Russian News Agency Tass: “The schedule has been somewhat altered due to the
Soyuz accident. But I think we will fulfil our obligations concerning the flight of a UAE national in 2019.”
Two Emirati astronauts, Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Nayadi, are currently training in Russia. They are the first Emiratis of the UAE’s astronaut corps and were chosen from 4,022 applicants who applied for the UAE Astronaut Programme.
One of them will be selected for the mission and the other will be a backup. In the original plan, they were meant to launch on April 5 and return on April 16. sarwat@khaleejtimes.com