AFP, Almaty :
An Emirati who made history as the first Arab to reach the International Space Station is set to return to Earth on Thursday following an eight-day mission that sparked euphoria in his homeland.
Hazzaa al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates will touch down in the Kazakh steppes at around 1100 GMT along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who both survived a failed launch to the ISS last year.
Hague and Ovchinin are completing a 203-day mission aboard the orbital lab while Mansoori’s two crewmates from the September 25 launch – Russia’s Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jessica Meir – will stay on as part of a six-member crew.
Although Mansoori’s mission was a short one, it has still been the source of great pride in the UAE, a newcomer to the world of space with ambitions to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021.
Mansoori’s blast-off from the launchpad that sent Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space was roared on by a large crowd at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, where he has been feted as a hero. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, lit up at the moment of the launch. The 35-year-old former military pilot’s whirlwind mission has had wall-to-wall coverage in Arab media. Mansoori has been active on Twitter where he posted photos of the UAE and Mecca – Islam’s holiest site – from the space station.
An Emirati who made history as the first Arab to reach the International Space Station is set to return to Earth on Thursday following an eight-day mission that sparked euphoria in his homeland.
Hazzaa al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates will touch down in the Kazakh steppes at around 1100 GMT along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who both survived a failed launch to the ISS last year.
Hague and Ovchinin are completing a 203-day mission aboard the orbital lab while Mansoori’s two crewmates from the September 25 launch – Russia’s Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jessica Meir – will stay on as part of a six-member crew.
Although Mansoori’s mission was a short one, it has still been the source of great pride in the UAE, a newcomer to the world of space with ambitions to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021.
Mansoori’s blast-off from the launchpad that sent Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space was roared on by a large crowd at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, where he has been feted as a hero. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, lit up at the moment of the launch. The 35-year-old former military pilot’s whirlwind mission has had wall-to-wall coverage in Arab media. Mansoori has been active on Twitter where he posted photos of the UAE and Mecca – Islam’s holiest site – from the space station.
