Dubai: The passenger for the UAE’s long-duration space mission has been announced. Sultan Al Niadi, a native of the UAE, will depart next year on a mission to spend six months on the International Space Station. UAE’s Sultan Al Nayabi will be the first Arab astronaut to spend six months on the International Space Station.
The UAE will also become the 11th country to send a man into space for a long period of time. The Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Center announced that Sultan Al Nayabi has completed five years of training before spending six months at the Bahrikasha Center. He was a trained astronaut who was selected for the UAE’s first space mission along with Hessa Al Mansoori. But although it was Hessa Almansuri who fell at the last minute to leave, Sultan has now been entrusted with a huge task.
Hessa Al Mansouri spent a week in the space station. Al Niabi will travel to space aboard the SpaceX Crew 6 probe, scheduled to launch in September 2023 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. President Sheikh Bin Zayed, Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan and others congratulated the UAE’s first long-term astronaut.