First UAE astronaut flies with US crew and Russian Space Station

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the 40th country in history to see one of its citizens fly into space with the launch of a crew bound for the International Space Station.

Hazzaa AlMansoori, a participant in a space flight piloting a contract between the Russian Space Agency and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (United Arab Emirates), took off with her cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka from Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Wednesday, September 25th. The three men were embarked aboard the Russian space shuttle Soyuz MS-15 at 9:57 am EDT (14:57 GMT or 18:57 local time) over a Soyuz FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The flight marked the intended end use of Gagarin's Start, the launch pad where cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took off on April 12, 1961 to become the first human to fly in space. Roscosmos officials announced that the historic platform, also known as Site 1, would be upgraded to support a more modern version of the Soyuz rocket.

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Nine minutes after leaving Gagarin, Skripochka, Meir and Al Mansoori traveled in Earth orbit to the International Space Station (ISS). After a four-orbit rendezvous, the Soyuz should stop at the Zvezda service module at 15:45. EDT (20:45 GMT).

"It's a unique responsibility and a unique opportunity to bring the first UAE astronaut aboard the station." "It's not that we're piloting it, it's going to work as a member." of our crew, "Skripochka said. at a press conference Tuesday. "But that brings some level of attention to our crew – it's at least a historic event."

"It has been a very interesting dynamic, especially to be part of this historic mission with a first participation for a country," Meir said. "It does not happen as often as it should these days, so it's really amazing and makes the experience even more interesting."

The three Soyuz MS-15 teammates will join the six astronauts and cosmonauts already on the space station, including Expedition 60 commander Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Nick Hague and Drew Morgan, the 39-year-old astronaut. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and cosmonaut Roscosmos Alexander Skvortsov.

For Skripochka and Meir, their arrival will mark the beginning of a six-month mission, during which they will be part of Expedition crews 61 and 62 of the space station.

AlMansoori will spend only 8 days in the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-12 with Skvortsov and The Hague. The three men are due to land in the Kazakhstan steppe on October 3rd.

The departure of Skvortsov and The Hague, after more than 200 days spent in the space station, will mark the official end of the 60 expedition and the beginning of the 61 expedition under the orders of Parmitano.

As members of the resident crew of the station, Skripochka and Meir will help to conduct hundreds of experiments, to perform maintenance work in order to keep the complex active and to monitor the activity. Arrival and departure of the visiting vehicles, including the eighth H-II (HTV-8) transfer vehicle from Japan. was launched Tuesday and is expected to arrive with supplies for the space station on Saturday, September 28.

Skripochka and Meir could also be present during the unmanned flight test of the first Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which is currently targeted for this fall.

AlMansoori will spend his week on the station also performing experiments, some for the United Arab Emirates and others jointly with Roscosmos or ESA, and will relate his experiences to his country during four live broadcasts. He also brought with him a number of cultural and food items to share with his teammates, including a United Arab Emirates flag and an Emirati lamb stew.

A former 35-year-old military pilot, AlMansoori has been selected for the United Arab Emirates astronaut program from more than 4,000 candidates. In addition to representing his country, he is also the third Arab to fly in space after Prince Sultan bin Salman al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and Muhammed Faris of Syria, who had piloted there are more than 30 years.

"I'm proud to be the first astronaut orbiting the ISS from the UAE and an Arab country," Al-Mansoori told reporters before it was launched. "It's truly an honor and I am looking forward to succeeding this mission and coming back with a lot of knowledge and experience that I will share with everyone."

Meir, 42, also makes her first space flight. A member of NASA's 21st group of NASA astronauts selected in 2013, she is a marine biologist who has studied the behavior of emperor penguins in Antarctica and the physiology of the bar-headed geese. Meir, who has dual US and Swedish citizenship, had previously served as an aquanautique aboard the Aquarius Submarine Laboratory as part of NASA's NEEMO-4 crew in 2002.

Skripochka, 49, has already spent 331 days in space during two previous trips to the station, Expedition 25/26 in 2011 and Expedition 47/48 in 2016. Mechanical engineer who worked for the aerospace company RSC Energia, Skripochka has also accumulated more than 16 hours in the space gap on three extravehicular activities (EVA or exits in space) during his previous missions.

The Soyuz MS-15 is the 61st Russian Soyuz aircraft to be launched from the International Space Station since 2000 and the 144th to fly since the first Soyuz mission in 1967.

Click for collectSPACE see the mission patch of the Soyuz MS-15 crew.

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