MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - The next astronaut of the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Al Neyadi, may begin his mission as early as in 2022, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin told the press following a meeting with UAE aerospace industry officials in Abu Dhabi.
"If we sign the contract, and I think that may happen in the first months of 2020, it will be necessary to designate new crewmembers, and the training period will last for at least 18 months. In fact, it will happen in 2022 at the earliest," Rogozin said.
He confirmed that the UAE would be paying for sending its astronaut on the mission but refused to disclose the amount payable, which is a commercial secret.
Al Neyadi was the reserve of the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, who flew on September 25. UAE Minister of State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills and Chairman of the Space Agency's Board of Directors Ahmad Belhoul said at a press conference after the flight that Al Neyadi would be next to go on a space mission.
"We plan to continue our space program and to send Sultan Al Neyadi to the ISS in the near future," Belhoul said.
"We will be working to send other astronauts to space in the later period," he said.
Al-Mansoori spent eight days on board the ISS and returned to the Earth on October 3. Unlike others, al-Mansoori did not have the status of a crewmember but was a participant in the space flight, or in effect a space tourist. According to Rogozin, the next UAE astronaut will be a crewmember of full standing.