The United Arab Emirates announced on Friday that it was sending an astronaut to the International Space Station on a six-month voyage on the second manned spaceflight to the rich Gulf nation, which wants to consolidate its position in the field of space science.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, tweeted: . “

New space station in the United Arab Emirates has signed a new contract to send the first Arab astronaut to the International Space Station for a 180-day long voyage … Long-term mission to space .. Proud of the UAE youth pic.twitter.com/vSILefU77I

– HHShk Mohd (HHShkMohd) April 29, 2022

According to the newspaper,NationalThe Emirati astronaut will be on the team scheduled to launch the SpaceX rocket in the first half of 2023 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

He said the signing with the company took place at the Emirati Embassy in Washington on Wednesday.

Despite its recent entry into the world of space exploration, the United Arab Emirates is making rapid strides in this area. In February 2021, the Emirati “Hope” spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, the first Arab country to reach the red planet in the United Arab Emirates.

In September 2019, Hassa al-Mansouri became the first Emirati astronaut to fly into space and was part of the three-member crew that launched the Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.

The United Arab Emirates also announced that in September 2020, by 2024, Emirati will be sending a lunar probe to the moon.

But the biggest ambition of the UAE is to create a human settlement on Mars by 2117. In 2017, Dubai hired engineers and technicians.