The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) has announced the first female astronaut in the history of Arab nations.
According to details, the news has been announced by the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a statement on social networking website Twitter.
In a tweet, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, “We announce the first Arab female astronaut, among two new astronauts, selected from over 4,000 candidates to be trained with NASA for future space exploration missions. Congratulations Noura Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla.”
According to Arab media, the UAE has selected a woman as one of two candidates for NASA-assisted training as crew for missions in space. Noura Al Matrooshi and her male counterpart Mohammed al-Mulla were selected from a shortlist of 14 candidates, comprising nine men and five women.
The first ever female candidate Noura Al Matrooshi has studied mechanical engineering from UAE University and holds bachelors’ degree and is said to be an award-winning mathematician. While her partner Mohammed Al Mulla is a decorated civilian pilot, who works as chief trainer at the Dubai police.
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Both the candidates will join NASA’s Astronaut Candidate class and training program at the Johnson Space Center in Texas later this year.
The reports said that if Matrooshi is picked for a mission to the International Space Station, she would become the first Arab woman to go into space.
It is pertinent to mention here that the first Muslim woman in space was Anousheh Ansari. She was an Iranian-born US entrepreneur and made a trip to the ISS in 2006.
Anousheh Ansari was one of seven participants of the so-called “space tourism” program that the firm Space Adventures ran in collaboration with the Russian space agency in the 2000s.
