UAE astronauts Al Mansouri, Al Neyadi complete first year of NASA training

The UAE astronauts Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi have completed their first year of training at the US space agency the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Both the astronauts completed their training successfully at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The training is part of the collaboration between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and NASA to train UAE astronauts. The two astronauts had earlier received training the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Moscow, in September 2018.

A video released by Dubai Media Office in March 2021 showed Al Mansouri and Al Neyadi taking training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in preparation for their future missions.

The two astronauts completed their six hours of underwater training wearing spacesuits.

“Throughout their 6 hours underwater in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), they passed their evaluations which included using the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), the maintenance of the International Space Station and the Incapacitated Crew Rescue (ICR),” MBR Space Centre said on Wednesday.

The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory is an astronaut training facility with a large indoor pool of water in which astronauts may perform simulated extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks in preparation for space missions. Trainees wear suits designed to provide neutral buoyancy to simulate the microgravity that astronauts would experience during spaceflight.