*DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates announced Monday that the first astronautfrom the Gulf country will blast off on a mission to the InternationalSpace Station on September 25.*
The oil-rich state has two astronauts in training, selected from more than4,000 applicants, as it looks to get an ambitious space programme aimed atexploring Mars off the ground.
The authorities said a decision on which of the two astronauts would takeoff on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the eight-day mission will be made inMay.
Both candidates — Hazza al-Mansouri, 35, and Sultan al-Neyadi, 37 — saidthey would be happy to see the UAE represented in space, no matter whomakes the journey.
“Our flag will go, our dreams, our passion [for] this country to be thelead in this sector,” Mansouri said at a press conference.
“Our objective is higher… it is for the beliefs of this country and itsobjectives to reach space.”
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the UAE’s vice president and primeminister, vowed in 2017 to send four Emirati astronauts to the spacestation within five years.
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The astronaut programme would make the UAE one of only a handful of statesin the Middle East to have sent a person into space, as it looks to makegood on a pledge to become a global leader in space exploration.
The first Arab in outer space was Saudi Arabia’s Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud,who flew on a US shuttle mission in 1985.
Two years later, Syrian air force pilot Muhammed Faris spent a week aboardthe Soviet Union’s Mir space station.
As part of its space plans, the UAE has also announced its aim to becomethe first Arab country to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021,naming it “Hope”.
In the long-term, it says it is planning to build a “Science City” toreplicate life on Mars and aims to create the first human settlement on thered planet by 2117. – APP/AFP
