UAE to send astronaut on 6-month mission to space station

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –

The United Arab Emirates has bought a seat on a SpaceX rocket for an Emirati astronaut to journey to the Worldwide House Station for a six-month keep, officers said Friday, the oil-rich federation’s first long-term mission because it advances its ambitions in house.

The UAE bought the seat on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket by way of a non-public Houston-based firm, Axiom House, an area tour operator that has been main efforts to commercialize the trade. The mission is scheduled for launch subsequent yr from the Kennedy House Middle in Florida.

This may mark the UAE’s second time sending an astronaut into house. In 2019, Maj. Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent an eight-day mission aboard the Worldwide House Station. The UAE assertion didn’t establish the astronaut picked for the 2023 mission.

The assertion additionally didn’t say how a lot the nation paid for the prized seat on the rocket constructed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Axiom’s ticket value for rich residents who paid their method to the Worldwide House Station earlier this month was US$55 million apiece for the rocket trip and lodging.

Friday’s announcement is a part of a flurry of exercise within the UAE’s house program. Final yr, the UAE put its Amal, or Hope, satellite tv for pc in orbit round Mars, a primary for the Arab world. In 2024, the nation hopes to place an unmanned spacecraft on the moon.

The UAE additionally has set the bold objective of constructing a human colony on Mars by 2117.