In preparation for the Arab astronauts’ first long-term mission, Al-Neyadi and Al-Mansoori complete training on the “Columbus” unit

Astronauts Hazzaa Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi completed ‘Columbus’ specialist training aboard the International Space Station in preparation for SpaceX Crew-6, one of the UAE’s Astronaut Program missions .
The intensive training included important categories: mission 69 payloads, mission science experiments, equipment use, routine maintenance, and emergency response.
These exercises come in preparation for the Arab astronauts’ first long-term mission, where the two astronauts spent hours putting into practice all the skills they acquired during the theoretical and practical sessions, especially as all the simulators in the training center are a copy exact of those in the International Space Station and ensure a comprehensive understanding mission before its launch in mid-February next year.
Sultan and Hazaa are among the other astronauts on the Crew-6 mission, ready to help advance scientific research aboard the International Space Station, where Sultan will be the lead astronaut for the mission from the United Arab Emirates, which will launch aboard of the SpaceX Dragon vehicle from Complex 39A to Space Station Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, to spend 6 months aboard the International Space Station.
The mission will begin with an overview of the delivery of tasks provided by the crew of the Crew-5 mission, which arrived in October as part of a scientific expedition to the Microgravity Laboratory, while Sultan will conduct a series of experiments and advanced research during the mission, in order to achieve important scientific achievements in space, which is part of the UAE Astronaut Program, which will train and prepare a team of Emirati astronauts before sending them into space to carry out various scientific missions.
Interestingly, the Emirates Astronaut Program launched by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center is one of the most inspiring programs that fulfills the aspirations of young people with unique scientific capabilities and personal abilities, and aims to train and prepare an astronaut team of the Emirates and send them into space to perform various scientific tasks and enable them to work on the International Space Station, which reinforces the center’s role in building infrastructure for the space sector in the UAE.
It is worth noting that the program is one of the projects funded by the Government Telecommunications and Digital Authority’s (TDRA) Information and Communications Technology Fund, which aims to support research and development in the of information and communication.