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UAE’s first professional astronaut may travel to space station in 2022

The UAE’s first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri was a non-professional participant in the space flight

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may sign a contract for a flight by the first professional astronaut from the UAE to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022, Head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday.

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Russia's space corporation eyes talks on longer spaceflight of UAE astronauts

The UAE’s first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri arrived at the ISS as a crewmember of the manned Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft that blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 25. The UAE astronaut returned to Earth on October 3. Al Mansouri was a non-professional participant in the space flight.

"We understood that the negotiations may begin only after the flight [by the UAE’s first representative to the ISS]. Now they have actually started in several areas. The first area is to train already an Emirati cosmonaut, instead of a flight participant, who should have special knowledge and be at least a flight engineer. If we now reach the stage of signing a contract, I believe this will most likely take place in the first months of 2020 and, therefore, a new procedure for the selection of cosmonauts will be required while training will take at least a year and a half," Rogozin said.

The Roscosmos chief added that the flight of the UAE’s first professional astronaut to the orbital outpost might take place no sooner than 2022.

The flight by the first Emirati professional astronaut to the space station was one of the issues discussed at negotiations between the Roscosmos chief and his counterparts from the UAE held in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Rogozin said.

The Roscosmos chief confirmed that the Emirati first professional astronaut would make a space flight to the ISS on a paid basis but declined to disclose the sum, referring to a commercial secret.

Minister for Higher Education and Advanced Skills, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UAE Space Agency Ahmad bin Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi earlier said that network engineer Sultan Al Neyadi would become the country’s second representative to travel to the orbital outpost. Al Neyadi was a backup astronaut during Al Mansouri’s space mission.

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