Cape Canaveral: On Thursday, SpaceX launched four astronauts for NASA to the International Space Station, including the first Arab to travel there for a prolonged, month-long stay.
Just after midnight, the Falcon rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center, lighting up the night sky as it travelled up the East Coast.
The United Arab Emirates sent nearly 80 spectators to the launch site to watch astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi, only the second Emirati to travel to space, blast off on his six-month mission.
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Schools and workplaces in Dubai and other parts of the UAE intended to broadcast the launch live halfway around the world. Along with NASA's Stephen Bowen, a retired Navy submariner who flew on three space shuttle missions, Warren "Woody" Hoburg, a former research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a space novice, and Andrei Fedyaev, a space novice who retired from the Russian Air Force, will also be aboard the Dragon capsule when it arrives at the space station on Friday.
A clogged filter in the engine ignition system forced Monday's first launch attempt to be postponed at the last minute. A US-Russian-Japanese crew that has been up there since October will be replaced by them.
Two Russians and an American who had their six-month stay extended until September due to a Soyuz capsule leak make up the other station occupants. Last weekend, a replacement Soyuz arrived.
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The first Emirati astronaut, Hazzaa Al-Mansoori, rode a Russian rocket to the space station in 2019 for a week-long visit. Al-Neyadi, a communications engineer, acted as backup for Al-Mansoori. On the SpaceX flight, Al-seat Neyadi's was paid for by the oil-rich federation.
The lengthy mission "provides us a new venue for science and scientific discovery for the country," according to Sarah Al-Amiri, minister of public education and advanced technology for the UAE.
Salem Al-Marri, director general of the UAE's space centre in Dubai, said, "We don't want to just go to space and then not have much to do there or not have impact.
A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates is already in Mars' orbit, and a Japanese lander is taking a miniature rover to the moon. With the newest astronaut picks from NASA, two new UAE astronauts are undergoing training in Houston.
When he launched aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1985, Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman became the first Arab in space. Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris, who was launched by Russia two years after he was, was his successor. They spent about a week in space together.
Two Saudi astronauts will travel to the space station with Al-Neyadi this spring on a quick private SpaceX flight funded by their government. Three Arabs in space at once will be "really exciting, really interesting," he predicted last week. Our region is eager to learn more, too.
Particularly during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that started this month, he is taking up a lot of dates to share with his crew. He explained that fasting is optional during Ramadan in orbit because it might make him ill and endanger his mission.
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The crew's captain, Bowen, claimed that despite the four members' national differences, they have gotten along well as a group. The US and Russia have kept working together on the space station and trading rides there despite the hostility surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.
Bowen exclaimed, "It's just incredible to have the chance to fly with these guys.