![\"\"](\"http:\/\/umang.pk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/UAE-celebrates-its-first-astronaut-in-space-Newspaper.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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DUBAI: A crowd in Dubai burst into cheers and applause on Wednesday when the first astronaut in the United Arab Emirates launched into the International Space Station, baptizing him as a national hero.<\/p>\n
Emiratis and schoolchildren gathered at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center when Hazzaa al-Mansoori, 35, was launched into space accompanied by Russian Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan .<\/p>\n
Former pilot of the UAE armed forces, he will be the first Emirati astronaut and the first Arab in the laboratory in orbit, but not the first Muslim.<\/p>\n
Some people gathered in central Dubai wore UAE flags, while others wore blue suits that spelled: "Future astronaut."<\/p>\n
Badriya al-Hamadi, 38, said she was very proud of the historical moment and added: "I feel that it is I who goes to space." According to Amer Al-Ghafri, from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, the launch of Mansoori is just the beginning of UAE space exploration dreams. "There are many ambitions and much more work," he said.<\/p>\n
Mansoori received worldwide support before taking off on what he described as his "dream" mission. He will spend eight days at the ISS, where he plans to conduct experiments.<\/p>\n
Writing on Twitter before launch, Mansoori said he was "full of this indescribable feeling of glory and wonder."<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I take my country's dreams and ambition to a completely new dimension. May Allah grant me success in this mission, \u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
A Koran, a flag of the UAE, photos of his family and a book by the Governor of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum were some of the few things that allowed him to pack for his space adventure.<\/p>\n
The iconic Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world, illuminated the time of takeoff at 5:57 pm local time.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Mohammed, also vice president and prime minister of the UAE, promised in 2017 to send four Emirati astronauts to the space station within five years.<\/p>\n
"The arrival of Hazzaa al-Mansoori into space is a message for Arab youth … that we can progress and move forward," Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
"Our next stop is Mars."<\/p>\n
Posted in Dawn, September 26, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/pre>\n<\/pre>\n Source: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1507431\/uae-celebrates-its-first-astronaut-in-space<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DUBAI: A crowd in Dubai burst into cheers and applause on Wednesday when the first astronaut in the United Arab Emirates launched into the International Space Station, baptizing him as a national hero. Emiratis and schoolchildren gathered at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center when Hazzaa al-Mansoori, 35, was launched into space accompanied by Russian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11077],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}