UAE’s next astronauts learn space survival skills at Nasa

UAE’s next astronauts learn space survival skills at Nasa

Even as astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi is continuing his historic space mission at the International Space Station (ISS), his counterparts have continued training hard here on earth. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has tweeted about how astronauts Mohammed Al Mulla and Noura Al Matrooshi completed several trainings within the Nasa Astronaut Programme 2021. The training programme included survival exercises at Fort Novosil, neutral buoyancy laboratory exercises at Johnson Space Centre, acquaintance with the field of geology, and others. It was in 2021 that Nasa selected 10 new astronaut candidates for future space missions. Mohammed and Noura joined these 10 — six men and four women — to make up the US space agency's 23rd group of astronaut candidates since the Mercury 7 were chosen in 1959. After graduating from two years of basic instruction, the Group 23 members will become eligible for a variety of assignments, including performing research on the ISS, launching on commercial spacecraft to commercial outposts in low Earth orbit and embarking on missions into deep space. Mohammed and Noura will graduate from this programme in early 2024. A flying enthusiast, Mohammed became the youngest pilot in Dubai Police after obtaining a commercial pilot’s licence at