Hazza Al Mansouri

On April 12, 2019, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced that it had selected Al Mansouri as the prime astronaut for an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).[10] Al Mansouri was assigned to Soyuz MS-15, alongside Russian commander Oleg Skripochka and American flight engineer Jessica Meir, both of whom would remain aboard the ISS for 204 days as part of Expedition 61/62.[11] Unlike Skripochka and Meir, Al Mansouri would land eight days after launch aboard Soyuz MS-12, alongside Russian commander Aleksey Ovchinin and American flight engineer Nick Hague, who would be returning following a 203-day stay on the ISS as part of Expedition 59/Expedition 60.

Al Mansouri (left) alongside Soyuz MS-15 commander Oleg Skripochka (centre) and flight engineer Jessica Meir (right).

Al Mansouri, Skripocka and Meir launched on 25 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; the trio spent under six hours free flying in space before docking to the Zvezda module on the ISS. Originally the spacecraft was scheduled to dock to the Poisk module but Soyuz MS-13 had moved there a month earlier to allow for the uncrewed Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to dock to the Zvezda module for a short period of time.[12] Following docking the hatches between Soyuz MS-15 and Zvezda were opened, allowing Al Mansouri, Skripochka and Meir to travel inside and meet their six crew mates.

ISS-60 crew with guest inside the Unity module for a meal

Due to the "direct handover" that was needed to facilitate Al Mansouri's short duration mission, his mission occurred during an unusual time when nine people were aboard the ISS, the three crew members who had launched on Soyuz MS-12, Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch, the three who had launched on Soyuz MS-13, Aleksandr Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan, and the three who had launched aboard Soyuz MS-15.[13] During his short stay aboard the ISS, Al Mansouri conducted 15 experiments created by UAE school students and selected under an MBRSC "Science in space" competition,[14][15] conducted Earth observation experiments, filmed the first ever tour of the ISS in Arabic and became the first Middle eastern person to be studied following time in microgravity.[16][17]

Al Mansouri following the landing of Soyuz MS-12.

On 3 October 2019, Al Mansouri, Ovchinin and Hague boarded the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, and undocked from the ISS, ended Expedition 60 and officially beginning Expedition 61, the three spent around five hours free flying in space before de-orbiting and touching down on the Kazakh Steppe, following which Ovchinin and Al Mansouri were flown to Star City, Russia, before Al Mansouri began his journey back to the UAE[18]

Flying through an agreement between the UAE and Russian governments, Hazza's role aboard the Soyuz and the ISS is referred to as a spaceflight participant (Russian: uchastnik kosmicheskovo poleta) in Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA documents and press briefings.[19][20] NASA has updated the terminology post the return of the mission to earth on October 3, 2019, and referred to Hazzaa as a visiting astronaut.[21] The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre refers to his mission as "UAE Astronaut Mission 1" or "Zayed's Ambition".[22][23][24]