The United Arab Emirates’ house program has come a good distance in a comparatively brief time, and final month, Emirati and U.S. officers celebrated the partnership and cooperation which have helped the UAE to perform all it has in house.
Within the 10 years because the UAE Area Company was launched, the younger nation has established the primary astronaut program within the Arab world; launched a made-in-the-UAE satellite tv for pc; despatched two astronauts to the Worldwide Area Station; change into the primary Arab nation and fifth nation globally to succeed in Mars, joined a world challenge to ascertain a longterm human presence on the Moon, as a springboard for missions to Mars; and signed an settlement that seeks to make sure that house exploration and improvement are completed sustainably and for peaceable functions.
And days earlier than the March 8 occasion, two Emirati astronauts—the primary Emirati feminine astronaut Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla—graduated from astronaut coaching at Johnson Area Middle in Houston, Texas.
A lot of the UAE’s success in house is tied to its partnership with the USA. Emirati astronaut Sultan Saif Al Neyadi mentioned at an occasion held on the 4 Seasons Resort in Washington final month that it was a “testomony to humanity’s potential when united in a typical function.”
“Collectively, we have now launched into a transformative journey that transcends boundaries, driving ahead a brand new period of discovery and innovation,” he mentioned on the March 8 occasion hosted by UAE Ambassador to the USA Yousef Al Otaiba.
Later in March, Al Otaiba hosted Al Neyadi and a few of his fellow crewmembers on Expedition 69 to the Worldwide Area Station for iftar, the meal taken after sunset to interrupt the daylong quick noticed by Muslims throughout Ramadan.
UAE firsts in house
Al Neyadi launched to the ISS in 2023 and spent six months on board. He’s the primary Arab astronaut to undertake a long-duration house mission and to conduct a spacewalk. He was not too long ago named UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs.
He was one in every of a number of officers from the UAE and the USA who took half in panel discussions and conversations on the occasion, the place the 2 international locations dedicated to proceed to cooperate on issues of house exploration and scientific analysis.
The occasion adopted an announcement in early January by the 2 international locations that they’ll work collectively to assist NASA’s Gateway lunar house station, an outpost orbiting the Moon that may present assist for lunar floor missions.
Gateway is “an important element of the NASA-led Artemis missions to return to the Moon and chart a path for the primary human missions to Mars,” NASA says on its web site.
It’s ruled by the Artemis Accords, a set of rules about house exploration that international locations conform to voluntarily.
Area diplomacy
The UAE and United States had been among the many eight unique signatories of the Artemis Accords in 2020, which name for house actions to be carried out for peaceable functions, transparently, and in accordance with worldwide regulation.
The Strategic Framework for Area Diplomacy, which the State Division launched final 12 months, calls the Artemis Accords “a centerpiece of the USA’ civil house diplomacy.” Thirty-six nations have now signed on to the Artemis Accords.
“The U.S. is proud that our partnership with the Emirates extends into the protected and accountable use of house by way of the Artemis Accords,” Nationwide Area Council Government Secretary Chirag Parikh mentioned on the 4 Seasons occasion.
Partnerships with NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. analysis establishments assist to “strengthen cooperation in assist of our shared imaginative and prescient and technique to enhance security and safety in house, increase the scope of worldwide scientific analysis, and develop new applied sciences that contribute to enhancing human lives,” mentioned Salem Butti Al Qubaisi, director normal of the UAE Area Company.
Ambassador Al Otaiba summed up the UAE-U.S. partnership in house with a twist on an outdated saying: “From the Gateway program to exploring Mars’ ambiance, our two nations’ partnership continues to go from power to power. Not even the sky is the restrict for our shared ambitions.”
