US, Russian and Emirati astronauts take off for the ISS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX spacecraft lifted off Thursday with four astronauts en route to the International Space Station on a flight for NASA that included the first person from the Arab world to spend months in space.

The Falcon rocket left Kennedy Space Center just after midnight and lit up the night sky as it soared above the East Coast.

Nearly 80 spectators from the United Arab Emirates watched the launch as astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi, the second Emirati to go into space, began his six-month mission.

Halfway around the world, in Dubai and other places in the United Arab Emirates, schools and offices had prepared to show the launch live.

Also aboard the Dragon capsule, which was due to arrive at the orbital outpost on Friday, were two NASA astronauts: Stephen Bowen, a retired Navy officer with underwater experience who has traveled three times shuttle, and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, former researcher. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They were accompanied by space rookie Andrei Fedyaev, retired from the Russian Air Force.

A first launch attempt was canceled Monday night due to a clogged filter in the engine’s ignition system.

The crew will replace the American, Russian and Japanese team present on the ISS since October. The other residents of the station are two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut whose six-month stay was doubled, until September, when their Soyuz capsule leaked. The replacement Soyuz arrived last weekend.

Al-Neyadi, a communications engineer, was the deputy to the first Emirati astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, who flew to the space station aboard a Russian rocket in 2019 for a week-long visit. The oil federation paid for Al-Neyadi’s place on the Space-X flight.

The long mission “gives us a new space for science and scientific discovery for the country”, said UAE Minister of Public Education and Advanced Technology Sarah al-Amiri.

“We don’t want to just go into space and not have much to do there or have no impact,” said Salem al-Marri, director general of the Emirati Space Center in Dubai.

The Emirates already have a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a small remote-controlled vehicle is heading to the Moon in a Japanese probe. Two new astronauts from the United Arab Emirates are training with NASA’s new astronaut group in Houston.

Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman was the first Arab to travel into space, having blasted off aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1985. He was followed two years later by Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris, who traveled to aboard a Russian spacecraft. The two were about a week in space.

Al-Neyadi will meet two Saudi astronauts in the spring who will travel to the space station on a short private SpaceX trip paid for by his government.

“It’s going to be very exciting, very interesting” to have three Arabs in space at the same time, he said last week. “Our region is also thirsty for knowledge.

You will have several special dates to share with the crew, especially during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month which begins this month. Regarding the fulfillment of Ramadan in orbit, he stressed that fasting was not obligatory as it would weaken him and endanger his mission.

Bowen, the team leader, said the four fitted in well as a team despite the differences between their countries. Even with the tension sparked by the war in Ukraine, the United States and Russia have continued to work together on the space station and swap seats on trips to the ISS.

“It’s huge to have the chance to fly with these guys,” Bowen said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science and Education Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all of its content.