More than 1,000 young Emiratis signed up to the UAE’s Astronaut Programme, launched last week by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
As part of the program, that list of 1,000 will be thoroughly vetted down to just four candidates. Those four will then undergo a three-year intensive training programme, to enable them to board the International Space Station.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC – AKA, our version of NASA) said last week that over 1,000 candidates had come forward. But successful astronauts need more than just guts to get the job.
Finalists will go through training in theory and science, as well as speciality qualification courses over the next few months.
According to the Chairman of the space centre, Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, “The UAE Astronaut Programme is a boundless ambition that showcases the UAE’s ongoing investment in science programmes to help serve national interests in the future, actively participating in global space exploration, and exploring the prospects of human life in space, including the possibility of inhabiting other planets.”
Young Emirati men and women can enrol for the UAE Astronaut Program via the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre website: www.mbrsc.ae/astronauts
Get the Esquire Newsletter. Click here to sign up
