UAE starts work on historic Lunar Gateway project

The UAE has begun working on the historic Lunar Gateway project, which will eventually lead to an Emirati astronaut taking part in a Moon mission for the first time.

Posting on social media, Director General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), Salem Al Marri, said they've held several meetings with NASA officials to begin the collaboration.

The MBRSC is providing Gateway’s Crew and Science Airlock, which will allow transfers to and from the habitable environment of Gateway and the vacuum of space, which will support broader science in the deep space environment, as well as Gateway maintenance.

MBRSC will also provide engineering support for the life of the lunar space station.

The lunar space station will be a staging-post for NASA’s future Moon missions under their Artemis programme, which is the most diverse and broad coalition of nations in human exploration in deep space. In collaboration with the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and MBRSC, NASA will return humans to the lunar surface for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.

This latest cooperation on Gateway builds on NASA’s and UAE’s previous human spaceflight collaborations.

In 2019, Hazzaa Al Mansoori became the first Emirati to fly to space during a short mission to the International Space Station, in which he collaborated with NASA to perform experiments and educational outreach.

A second Emirati astronaut, Sultan Al Neyadi, launched to the space station in 2023 on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, where he participated in the floating laboratory’s scientific research that advances human knowledge and improves life on Earth.

The UAE currently has two additional astronaut candidates in training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA has also worked with UAE on Mars research and human research and analog studies to support mutual exploration priorities.

In 2020, the US and UAE were among the original signers of the Artemis Accords, which are a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations participating in NASA’s 21st century lunar exploration programme.

Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a stepping-stone to send the first astronauts to Mars.

This week, we started the work on the Gateway Lunar Space Station after our leadership announced the UAE's participation in the project.
We had several meetings with the Gateway team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to coordinate the efforts, and our team at MBRSC is starting to… pic.twitter.com/9i9oS8hmh2

— Salem AlMarri سالم حميد المري (@Salem_HAlMarri) January 21, 2024