Ready for blast-off: Emirati astronauts to graduate after two years of Nasa training
▶ Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla will be eligible for space missions after ceremony today
Two Emiratis will graduate in a Nasa ceremony today, after completing two years of astronaut training.
Nora Al Matrooshi, 31, a mechanical engineer, and Mohammed Al Mulla, 36, a former Dubai Police helicopter pilot, will receive silver astronaut pins signifying their eligibility for space missions during a graduation event at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
The duo follow in the footsteps of Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati in space, and Sultan Al Neyadi, now Minister of State for Youth Affairs, who completed a six-month mission on board the International Space Station last year.
Their graduation will give a boost to the UAE’s space programme, as the nation’s astronaut corps gains two more members.
But it could be some time before the new recruits can travel to space, as the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre tries to arrange missions for them.
Salem Al Marri, the space centre’s director general, said the four Emirati astronauts will be given assignments in Houston and the UAE, where they will work on mission control and engage in outreach activities at schools.
“Once they graduate, they will go into a rotation system, where most probably we will have two of our astronauts based in Houston for a while, and then they rotate back to Dubai, and vice versa,” Mr Al Marri said.
“When you are not mission-assigned, your jobs are something like Capcom [mission control officer who communicates with astronauts in space], working with different partners and on something like the Gateway [a lunar orbiting station], which our astronauts will be an integral part of.
“So, that’s what their jobs will be for the foreseeable future.”
Once an astronaut is selected for a mission, they begin up to 18 months of training.
Most of an astronaut’s career is spent on Earth in various roles such as training, mission control, research and public outreach.
Nasa has 39 Americans active in its astronaut corps, seven of whom have not yet been to space.
Historic scenes unfolded when Dr Al Neyadi left Earth on a SpaceX rocket in March last year.
He was the first Arab to carry out an extended mission and the first to carry out a spacewalk.
He returned to Earth on board a SpaceX Dragon capsule on September 4.
His trip was made possible by an agreement between the MBRSC and Axiom Space, a Houston-based space infrastructure
company that helps arrange trips to orbit.
Maj Al Mansouri’s eight-day trip to the ISS in 2019 was the result of co-operation between the MBRSC and Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Mr Al Marri said the MBRSC would try to secure a mission every three to five years, which means it could be a while before the next Emirati blasts off.
With the International Space
Station scheduled to be retired at the end of this decade, the Emirati astronauts could be training for different missions in future.
There are international plans to launch commercial space stations into orbit, where astronauts will be able to live and work.
The UAE is also planning to send astronauts to the Moon’s orbit, and is contributing to
the Gateway by developing an airlock.
Other countries to have struck deals with Axiom Space include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Hungary and Britain.
Ms Al Matrooshi and Mr Al Mulla’s graduation ceremony will be streamed live on Nasa’s website at 7.30pm UAE time.
They will graduate alongside 10 American astronauts, who will also receive silver astronaut pins. Nasa has been awarding lapel pins since 1963 to astronauts who complete basic training.
Silver ones are awarded to those who have completed their training but have yet to fly to space. Gold ones are awarded to astronauts who have already gone to space.
The Emirati astronauts are expected to give speeches at the graduation ceremony.