Hazza Al Mansouri, the world’s first Emirati astronaut and Arab to board the International Space Station, is heading home today.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants, Al Mansouri was personally chosen to the first Emirati astronaut. Previously a fighter pilot, Al Mansouri underwent months of training to prepare him for the ISS and microgravity situations.
Al Mansouri was in space for eight days, performing a variety of experiments. He also held livestreams, Q&As and acts of cultural exchanges with his international crewmates.
First blasting off on September 25 on the Soyuz MS-15 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Al Mansouri shall return to Earth aboard a different craft, the Soyuz MS-12.
He is returning home with two fellow crew, Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, the ISS’s commander till this point, and Nick Hague, astronaut and the stations first engineer. Both these individuals had been on the station for months.
Read everything you need to know about Al Mansouri’s mission here
Returning home from the boarders of space is a long process. The trio, already in the Soyuz MS-12 craft at the time of writing, have to wait in the stationary craft for almost four hours before departure begins. Naturally this is for safety and security reasons.
Converted to Gulf Standard Time, here are the key points of the day to set an alarm for according to The National:
7.45am – Hatch closure of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft
11am – Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft undocking coverage
11.36am – Undocking scheduled. This is when Al Mansouri will depart the International Space Station
1.30pm – Soyuz MS-12 deorbit burn and landing coverage
2.06pm – Deorbit burn scheduled
3pm – Landing near Zhezqazghan
You can watch the full departure live below:
