UAE: The countdown down has started for the first UAE astronaut to make a historical trip into space.
Astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri has been selected to travel to the International Space Station in less than 100 days.
He is undergoing intensive training, along with his compatriot Sultan Al Neyadi, at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia’s Star City.
Preparations for the launch of Soyuz MS-15 on September 25, are now at an advanced stage.
The Emirati will return home on October 3, in the capsule for Soyuz MS-12, which has been docked at the space station since March. He will be joined by the Russian astronaut Alexsey Ovchinin and Nasa’s Nick Hague.