List of Arab astronauts

Saudi astronauts

In 1985, the Arab Organization of Space Communications nominated Sultan bin Salman Al Saud. Originally a civilian pilot holding a commercial pilots licence, Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud, was born in Riyadh, to King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and holds a bachelor's degree of Arts in Media from the University of Denver, Colorado. Al Saud undertook high-level training before his flight, including: how to deploy the Arab satellite at a distance of 320 km above the Earth's surface, as well as how to use a camera from the unit (Hamlad - 500) to take pictures of geological features of the Arabian Peninsula.

In 2023, Ali AlQarni and Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Saudi astronauts who traveled to the ISS on the Axiom 2 private mission. Rayyanah was the first female Arab astronaut.

Emirati astronauts

On 25 September 2019, Hazza Al Mansouri became the first Emirati to become an astronaut, travelling in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the International Space Station. During his short stay aboard the ISS, Al Mansouri conducted 15 experiments created by UAE school students and selected under an MBRSC "Science in space" competition, conducted Earth observation experiments, filmed the first ever tour of the ISS in Arabic and became the first Middle eastern person to be studied following time in microgravity.

Sultan Al Neyadi became the second Emirati astronaut who traveled to the ISS on the SpaceX Crew-6 mission. Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla are other UAE astronauts.

Syrian astronaut

Muhammed Faris was a Syrian astronaut born in Aleppo in 1951. Faris was the first Syrian astronaut and second Arab into space, flying in the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz M3 (TM-2) to space station Mir on 22 July 1987 with two Soviet cosmonauts in the program for cooperation in space between Syria and the Soviet Union. He is credited with carrying the first recorded Earth dirt into space, which was a vial carrying soil from Damascus.

Astronaut of Iraqi descent

On 25 September 2019, Jessica Meir whose father is of Sephardic Jewish descent and was born in Baghdad, travelled in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the International Space Station. She delivered an empowering video message of support to kids on the Hope Buses in Baghdad.

List

References

References

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