First Emirati astronaut is ready to launch into space

DUBAI: The first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday.

Hazza Al Mansouri is scheduled to launch with NASA rookie astronaut Jessica Meir, and veteran Russian commander Oleg Skripochka, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio will launch on a Soyuz spacecraft on Wednesday at 7:42 PM  (1357 GMT).

It’s a proud moment for the tiny country, which has a small cadre of two rookie astronauts prepared to work alongside space agencies who have been in the crew business for decades — NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency or Roscosmos, and the other partner entities of the International Space Station (ISS) in Europe, Japan, and Canada.

“I feel excited, this has been two and a half, three years coming to what is a very exciting culmination,” Salem Al Marri, head of the UAE astronaut program, told The National Monday at the launch site.

You can watch Mansouri’s launch here courtesy of NASA TV. NASA’s launch webcast will begin at 6:45 PM (1300 GMT).

(Agencies)