•     Only 0.1% will be successful
•     34% females
•     38 different careers
•     Official ‘Selection Committee’ has been appointed to screen applications and shortlist potential candidates for the programme 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 16 April 2018:  Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre today announced that they have received over 4,000 applications from Emiratis across the UAE aspiring to go beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and become part of the UAE Astronaut Programme.

The programme, funded by ICT Fund of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), was launched in December 2017 and was open for applications for a period of 3 months before closing registration on March 31, 2018.  

For the past three months, Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center started accepting entries for the UAE Astronaut Programme.

During this time a total of 4,022 applications were submitted from 38 different work fields between the ages of 17 and 67 years old, consisting of 34% applications from Emirati women. 

Commenting on the success of the programme and the wealth of applications received, H.E. Yousef Al Shaibani, Director General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre said: 'Today, we are very proud of the sons and daughters of the country who have taken the initiative to join in this ambitious program.

We are delighted by the volume of entries and highly impressed by the diversity in skill set and backgrounds displayed by the applicants.

Success of this programmed is underpinned by the talent we hone, and we are looking forward to training a skilled team of individuals to represent our country on board the ISS and contribute to the various experiments and research areas there.

Successfully depends on the ambitious and entrepreneurial talents of our society and is in keeping with the aspirations and ambitions of the State to explore space.”  

Salem Al Marri, Assistant Director General for Scientific and Technical Affairs at MBRSC, Head of higher committee of the UAE Astronaut Programme also commented: “The UAE Astronaut Programme is a unique programme carefully crafted to establish UAE as one of the front runners in the global race for space.

Through this programme, we are hoping to inspire a new generation of Emirati nations through space exploration and innovation and enable them to contribute to the future of our great country.

We are looking forward to meeting the successful candidates who have the potential to become a part of our final four and I would like to wish everyone who has applied the very best of luck.”

A ‘Selection Committee’ has also been now appointed to screen through the vast number of applications with great care and shortlist suitable candidates for the next phase of the selection process.

This phase includes a basic medical and psychometric test, an initial interview, an advanced medical and psychometric test and a panel interview.

The top four candidates who successfully complete all stages of the selection process will then come together to form the UAE Astronauts Team by the end of 2018.

Once chosen, the four Emirati astronauts will go through to a series of training programmes, which are divided into a year-long basic training modules and advanced training modules which will be conducted over a period of three years.

They will also travel to various Astronaut Training Centres around the world providing state-of-the-art simulation systems in the field of space training, to enable them to acquire the best skills in this area. 

The astronauts will then be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to conduct a wide range of different scientific research projects and experiments in various disciplines.

Each experiment and mission have different objectives, however, the scientific mission of the UAE Astronaut Programme is to contribute to humanity’s knowledge and to support national and international future space missions. 

The potential scientific focus areas of the UAE Astronaut Programme are aligned with Mars 2117 project which sheds light on the challenges and areas of interest of human space exploration.

These include – food security and sustainability, sustainable source of water, human life support, energy and power management, advancing material science and planetary contamination management. 

The UAE Astronaut Programme is the first astronaut programme in the Arab world aimed towards developing skilled and capable Emirati astronaut corps and training them to embark on future space missions.

They will also serve as ambassadors for the UAE and the Arab world in space exploration.