*ISLAMABAD – A three-man crew including an Emirati who became the firstArab to reach the International Space Station returned to Earth safely onThursday and were in good shape, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.*
Hazzaa al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates touched down in the Kazakhsteppes at 1059 GMT along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmoscosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who both survived a failed launch to the ISSlast year.
“The crew that returned to Earth is feeling well,” Roscosmos saidimmediately after the landing.
Roscosmos footage from the landing site in central Kazakhstan showedMansoori smiling as he sat wrapped in an Emirati flag after leaving thecapsule.
Hague and Ovchinin completed a 203-day mission aboard the orbitinglaboratory while Mansoori’s two crewmates from his September 25 launch —Russia’s Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jessica Meir — are staying on as partof a six-member team.
Although Mansoori’s mission was short — eight days in total — it has beenthe source of great pride in the UAE, a newcomer to the world of space withambitions to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021.
UAE leaders were quick to hail his safe return.
Abu Dhabi’s powerful Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyanhailed the mission in a Twitter post.
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“Congratulations to the people of the UAE for this historic achievement.Zayed’s sons will fulfil our ambition to reach Mars,” the Crown Princewrote.
Mansoori has been active on Twitter where he shared photos of the UAE andMakkah — Islam’s holiest site — from the space station.
On Thursday, he posted a view of space taken from the station’s Cupolapanoramic observatory module and paid tribute to UAE founding father SheikhZayed.
“With fear and pride, I am returning with Zayed’s ambition achieved. We arenot done yet, and we will never be. To bring back the golden era of Arabastronauts,” he wrote.
Mansoori’s blast-off from the launchpad that sent Soviet cosmonaut YuriGagarin into space was roared on by a large crowd at the Mohammed BinRashid Space Centre in the UAE, where he has been feted as a hero. -APP/AFP
