UAE astronaut flight to ISS tentatively scheduled for April
Russia has now tentatively scheduled the flight to ISS of the United Arab Emirates first astronaut.
The first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 5, 2019, and will return to Earth on April 16, 2019, the ISS launch schedule, shared with Sputnik, has shown. According to the document, an astronaut will fly to the ISS on board the Russian Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft.
It has not been determined yet if Hazza Mansouri or Sultan Nayadi will take part in the mission. Both astronauts have qualified for it and have begun their training in Russia earlier in September.
Though the goal of this mission by the UAE government is to encourage a private space industry in their country, the mission remains wholly a government creature. What has not been released is how much UAE is paying the Russians for their flight.
Had the launch of the U.S. commercial crew spacecraft not been slowed by NASA and had been operational, either SpaceX or Boeing could have competed for this business. Expect them to do so in the future.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Russia has now tentatively scheduled the flight to ISS of the United Arab Emirates first astronaut.
The first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 5, 2019, and will return to Earth on April 16, 2019, the ISS launch schedule, shared with Sputnik, has shown. According to the document, an astronaut will fly to the ISS on board the Russian Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft.
It has not been determined yet if Hazza Mansouri or Sultan Nayadi will take part in the mission. Both astronauts have qualified for it and have begun their training in Russia earlier in September.
Though the goal of this mission by the UAE government is to encourage a private space industry in their country, the mission remains wholly a government creature. What has not been released is how much UAE is paying the Russians for their flight.
Had the launch of the U.S. commercial crew spacecraft not been slowed by NASA and had been operational, either SpaceX or Boeing could have competed for this business. Expect them to do so in the future.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Would NASA have let them? Don’t the Russians get away with this because they use their space on the ISS? Or is this different than a tourist because another government is involved?
One advantage the Russians have is that a tourist can come up on one Soyuz and return a week or two later on the other Soyuz which had been on station for the previous six months, whereas with SpaceX and Boeing alternating crew rotation flights, any short-stay tourist would need to negotiate a flight up with one provider and a return flight with the other, each with their own specific space suit.
woden, I don’t know how receptive NASA would be to the idea of a tourist hanging out in the USOS portion of the ISS. Perhaps they’d need to pay the Russians to hang out in the ROS even if they rode on US capsules.
It could be that for tourists and other customers getting rides to the ISS via SpaceX and Boeing that they will stay on a commercial module attached to the station. NASA has talked about it. I don’t recall if this was in all cases but the commercial module was to be later detached after proving itself and then become part of an independent space station. Considering how long it takes with Commercial Crew and getting projects like BEAM, a commercial module is many years off.
It would probably be better to launch their own facility and demonstrate its fitness on their own schedule and then sell one to NASA for the ISS or just lease NASA space on the new station. It would be a great way to compete for being a Gateway provider too. Do you go with the company promising to build something or the one with something already in orbit?
Perhaps with stations other than ISS, the transportation issues would work themselves out, assuming the capsules have the ability to travel.
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/uae-signs-deal-with-russia-for-uae-astronaut-flight/
Although Robert describes it as being similar to a tourist mission, that only describes the length of the mission. The UAE envisions actual working, productive astronauts. This is not the first short term mission to the ISS, just the first UAE one.
This first mission is short term. So far I have not heard what science this astronaut is intended to carry out on this mission.
https://www.space.com/16748-international-space-station.html
The UAE has not contributed much to the ISS, so they do not rate a long term mission.
My expectation is that the UAE’s main mission is to gain experience at sending astronauts into space so that when alternative space stations are available, such as Bigelow habitats, then they will be in a good position to lease or buy one for their own use and longer stays with more science.
So far, the U. S. and Russians (Soviets) have been the gatekeepers for other nations to send their own astronauts to space. Soon this will change, and I expect that several nations will advance their own manned space programs. It will just be that they will not depend upon reluctant governments but upon eager commercial enterprises to provide access with launchers and habitats.