The United Arab Emirates has picked 27-year-old Nora Al Matrooshi, who is now poised to become the country’s and Arab world’s first female astronaut.
She was selected with Mohammed Al Mulla from 4,305 applicants; 1,400 of whom are female.
They will proceed to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, towards the end of this year for training.
UAE already has two trained astronauts: Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi.
Hazza Al Mansouri made history as the first Emirati to travel to space in September, 2019
when he spent eight days in the International Space Station, ISS.
The first Muslim in space is Saudi’s Prince Sultan bin Salman with the shuttle Discovery in 1985.
Nora Al Matrooshi’s selection to be an astronaut is highly welcome by gender activists because of what is widely perceived as a huge gender imbalance in space exploration.
By 2020, out of the 550 astronauts who have travelled to space, only 65 are woman.
pictures courtesy: uae space
