Hazzaa Al Mansoori and Sultan Al Neyadi train at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany.
Cologne, Germany - The training focused on the European unit, Columbus, onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Published: Mon 1 Jul 2019, 9:00 PM
Updated: Mon 1 Jul 2019, 11:17 PM
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced that Emirati astronauts Hazzaa Al Mansoori and Sultan Al Neyadi have completed their training at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Cologne, Germany.
The training focused on the European unit, Columbus, onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Part of the training was attended by Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, Director-General of the MBRSC, and Salem Al Marri, assistant director-general for Scientific and Technical Affairs at the MBRSC and head of the UAE Astronaut Programme. This is part of the preparations for the first Emirati astronaut to travel to the ISS on September 25 aboard the Soyuz MS 15, and part of the overall training plan for the two astronauts.
The astronauts completed around 30 hours of theoretical and practical training, supervised by a group of ESA specialists, focusing on the equipment and systems in the European unit of the ISS, such as the life support system that ensures the survival of astronauts in the ISS. The training, all performed in a real-like module of Columbus, also included communicating with the ground station.
The training programme included four main types of scientific experiments: Time perception in microgravity (Time), Brain DTI, Fluidics (fluid dynamics in space), and DNAm-age, which tests the changes that happen to human's DNA due to traveling to space; it will be the first time that this experiment will be carried out on a human from the Arab region.
Al Shaibani was briefed on the training during an introductory tour to the various training departments at the EAC, where he was shown the latest technologies used to train the astronauts.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com
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