UAE Astronaut To Fly to International Space Station in 2023

An astronaut from the United Arab Emirates will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023. Houston-based Axiom Space and the UAE’s space agency, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, signed a deal late last week to fly the unnamed astronaut to the ISS on SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission. It will be the first long-term stay on the space station for an astronaut from an Arab country, expected to last six months. In yet another first, the UAE crew member will serve as a member of two expedition crews onboard the space station during those six months.  It will be the second time that an astronaut from the UAE has traveled to the ISS. Hazza Al Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS in 2019, flying there aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.