Dubai:
The United Arab Emirates has chosen the very first Arab lady to train as an astronaut, as the Gulf nation quickly expands into the space sector to diversify its economy.
Emirati national Nora al-Matrooshi, a 27-year-old mechanical engineering graduate at present working at Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company, will join NASA’s 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class in the United States.
The UAE is working with its space programme to create its scientific and technological capabilities and minimize its reliance on oil.
Space was her passion due to the fact childhood… Nora AlMatrooshi, the new member of the UAE Astronaut Programme.#UAEAstronauts#UAEAstronautProgramme@Astronaut_Nora@TheUAETRApic.twitter.com/TEW5uip0EK
— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) April 10, 2021
In February a UAE probe reached the orbit of the planet Mars, the Arab world’s very first interplanetary expedition. The UAE has plans to launch a moon rover by 2024 and even a vision for a Mars settlement by 2117.
Matrooshi will be joined by yet another Emirati, Mohammed al-Mulla, producing a total of 4 folks beneath the UAE Astronaut Programme. They contain Hazza al-Mansouri who became the very first Emirati in space in 2019 when he flew to the International Space Station.
Nora was one of 4,300 applicants assessed on scientific skills, education and sensible knowledge, and then on physical, psychological and health-related assessments, Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) stated.
The UAE launched a National Space Programme in 2017 to create regional knowledge. Its population of 9.4 million, most of whom are foreign workers, lacks the scientific and industrial base of the significant spacefaring nations.
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