The United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronauts Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla on Tuesday, March 5, graduated from the 2021 Nasa Astronaut Candidate Class training programme.
In NASA’s 2024 Astronaut Graduation ceremony, they receive silver astronaut pin along with ten American astronaut candidates at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
31-year-old Mechanical engineer Nora and her colleague 36-year-old Mohamme, who was a Dubai Police helicopter pilot, became the first Arabs graduating from NASA class, marking a significant achievement for the country.
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They have become eligible for spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, future commercial destinations, Moon missions under the Artemis Programme, and Mars missions.
The two-year training program emphasized critical skills such as spacewalking, robotics, space station systems, T-38 jet proficiency, and Russian language proficiency.
Nora and Mohammad underwent extensive training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston for spacewalks.
