Current Affairs - Persons - Discussion

The United Arab Emirates has disclosed its first two astronauts to go on a mission to the International Space Station. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai named the new astronauts as Hazza al-Mansouri, 34-year-old, and Sultan al-Neyadi, 37-year-old. The UAE has its sights set on space with a programme worth 20 billion dirhams i.e, $5.4 billion. UAE has announced its plans to become the first Arab country to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021. The probe is named as "Hope". The astronaut programme would make the UAE one of only a handful of states in the Middle East to have sent a person into space.