The United
Arab Emirates has sent its first astronaut to space. That is a step in a
budding, ambitious space program for an oil-rich country the size of Maine
along the southern side of the Persian Gulf. Next year, it plans to send a
robotic spacecraft to Mars, and its leaders talk of colonizing the red planet a
century from now.
Emirati
officials hope that space will inspire and train a generation of engineers and
scientists who can help prepare the country for a post-oil future.
Hazzaa al-Mansoori, a former Emirati F-16 pilot, launched for
the International Space Station in a Soyuz space capsule from a Russian
spaceport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Also aboard were Jessica Meir of NASA and
Oleg Skripochka of Russia. After a quick, six-hour trip, the spacecraft docked
with the station at 3:42 p.m. Eastern time.
“I will try to
remember each second of the launch itself,” Mr. al-Mansoori said during a news
conference this month. “Because it will be really
very important for me to share it
with everyone and my country, the entire world and the Arab region.”
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