The UAE astronaut programme: build capability beyond one flight

The UAE Astronaut Programme began in 2017 under the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. Its first selection in 2018 included Hazza Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansouri, widely known as Hazzaa AlMansoori, and Sultan Saif Al Neyadi. AlMansoori visited the International Space Station in 2019 under Zayed Ambition 1. Al Neyadi’s 2023 flight, Zayed Ambition 2, added a roughly six-month station assignment.

These were national contributions within international transport and station arrangements. A programme can develop trained personnel, ground support and research relationships without owning the spacecraft used for every journey. The astronaut, the launch vehicle operator and the station partners therefore need separate entries in a mission account. Recording those roles preserves both national achievement and the cooperation that made the work possible.

Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla joined the programme’s second selection in 2021. They completed NASA astronaut candidate training in 2024. Graduation established preparation for future assignments; it did not itself document a launch, time in orbit or a completed spacewalk. A roster should distinguish a trained astronaut from the flight record attached to that person.

Training also has to match the eventual job. General preparation builds knowledge and skills across spacecraft systems, teamwork and emergency response. An assigned crew then practices the particular vehicle, experiment procedures and operations for its mission. Imagine a person who passes a general laboratory qualification — open definition but has not rehearsed a newly installed instrument. The qualification is valuable, yet the instrument-specific procedure still requires preparation. Spaceflight uses the same distinction at a much more demanding scale.

Track separate astronaut milestones

During his 2023 station assignment, Al Neyadi worked on research and station operations. On 28 April he performed a seven-hour, one-minute spacewalk with Stephen G. Bowen. NASA’s photograph shows him outside the Quest airlock during work preparing station power-system infrastructure. This was a maintenance contribution within a wider campaign; the image does not show every task or prove that later solar-array installation had already happened.

A long station visit also allows repeated observations, equipment servicing and follow-up work that a brief visit may not fit. More days in orbit do not automatically prove a larger scientific discovery, however. Researchers still need appropriate methods, reliable observations and analysis. Suppose a teaching study records twelve planned sessions but two have unusable sensor data. Ten usable sessions belong in the analysis unless a justified method addresses the gaps; counting all twelve as valid would overstate the evidence.