In this video interview, Salem Humaid Al Marri, Director General of the Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), home of the UAE space programme, discusses the UAE’s ambitions to participate in its own as well as international space exploration missions, including human space flights.
Al Marri was talking as UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, 42, and his fellow Crew-6 (Expedition 69) astronaut members were due to return from the International Space Station (ISS) to Earth between September 3 and 4, 2023.
Al Neyadi has set a record for carrying out the longest Arab manned space mission, spanning six months, and conducting the first-ever spacewalk by an Arab astronaut.
Crew-6 members consist of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen (commander) and Woody Hoburg (pilot), UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi (flight specialist), and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (mission specialist).
The four Crew-6 astronauts lifted off to the ISS from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2, 2023, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and subsequently a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The Crew-6 astronauts spent their months on the ISS conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations that help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit people back on Earth.
Al Neyadi and his six Crew-6 members are set for an ocean splashdown off the coast of Tampa, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico on September 4, 2023.
Separately, Hazzaa Al Mansoori was the first UAE astronaut and a graduate of the UAE astronauts corps of MBRSC. Al Mansoori launched to the ISS on September 25, 2019, onboard a Soyuz M5-15 spacecraft.
He spent eight days on the ISS, conducting various experiments, before returning to Earth on October 3, 2019, and landing aboard a Soyuz MS-12 capsule in Kazakhstan.
Al Mansoori is the Incremental Lead of Expedition 69 to the ISS.
