As the UAE moves even closer to making history in space travel, the names of its first two astronauts have been announced.
Hazza Al Mansouri, 34, and Sultan Saif Al Neyadi, 37 will soon start their training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow. One of them will be chosen to blast off in a Soyuz rocket next April on a mission to the International Space Station.
During their training, they will be taught to survive and operate in a challenging space-like environment, such as high gravitational speeds that are difficult for any untrained person to cope with.
They will undergo diving exercises for long hours which aim to prepare them for working in zero-gravity zones.
Hazza Al Mansouri is a trained UAE Air Force pilot and has more than 14 years of experience in military aviation. Al Mansouri has also been part of Exercise Red Flag, which the US Air Force holds several times per year in the skies above Nevada or Alaska. It sees the best pilots of the US, NATO and their allies perform realistic air-combat exercises.
Al Seyadi has worked for the UAE military in information technology sector for many years. He holds a PhD in information technology specialising in data leak prevention from the Griffith University in Queensland. He has also studied at the University of Brighton in the UK.