UAE’s first female astronaut has Nasa graduation date in March
Nora Al Matrooshi, the UAE’s first female astronaut candidate, is set to graduate from a Nasa training programme in Houston, Texas, next month, the US space agency told The National.
Mechanical engineer Ms Al Matrooshi, her colleague Mohammed Al Mulla, a former Dubai Police helicopter pilot, and 11 American candidates will comprise the astronaut class of 2023.
They will then be qualified for missions such as joining the International Space Station crew, and US-led missions such as trips to the Moon under Nasa’s Artemis programme.
Candidate training began in 2021 at the Johnson Space Centre, and their courses included land survival, flight training, spacesuit and spacewalks, and geology field training. “I first started dreaming of becoming an astronaut when my teacher in kindergarten asked us to build a tent and pretend it was a spacecraft that was taking us to the Moon,” Ms Al Matrooshi, 30, said at a media briefing early in her course work with Nasa specialists.
“Since then, I’ve become extremely passionate about becoming an astronaut.
“I’ve been working in the oil and gas fields for several years, but my dream of becoming an astronaut never went away. The dream I’ve had since a child has come true. Now, I’ve started dreaming bigger.”
Graduation ceremonies are typically held at the Johnson Space Centre, but Nasa is expected to confirm the location and exact date within weeks.
Nasa’s 2023 astronaut class patch features a US and UAE flag. It is shaped like a fly, and depicts an astronaut reaching for the Moon, with Mars in the distance.
UAE’s first astronauts – Sultan Al Neyadi, who returned from a six-month mission on the ISS in September, and Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati in space – completed the Nasa training programme in 2022.
All Emirati astronauts will soon qualify for missions to the Lunar Gateway, as the UAE has a place for one astronaut on the Moon-orbiting station.
The Emirates will build an airlock for the project in exchange for access to the station.