NASA plans to return humans to the lunar surface in 2026 with the Artemis 3 mission.
Houston, Texas:
Like her ancestors, Emirati astronaut Nora AlMatrooshi has spent much of her life looking up at the stars and dreaming of flying to the moon.
This week, she became the first Arab woman to graduate from a NASA training program, preparing to blast off into space.
AlMatrooshi, 30, remembers a lesson about space in elementary school in which her teacher simulated a trip to the lunar surface, complete with Arts and Crafts spacesuits and a rocket-ship tent.
“We came out of the tent and saw her turning off the lights in the classroom. She covered everything with a gray cloth and she told us we had reached the surface of the moon,” Almatrosi told AFP.
“That day resonated with me and has stuck with me. I remember thinking, ‘This is awesome. I really want to actually do this, I want to actually reach the surface of the moon.’ That’s how it all started time,” she recalled, wearing a blue flight suit embroidered with her name and the UAE flag.
AlMatrooshi, a mechanical engineer who has worked in the oil industry, is one of two astronaut candidates selected by the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) in 2021 to participate in NASA’s training program.
Now, after two years of hard work, including practice spacewalks, Almatrohi, her fellow Emirati Mohammed Almoula and 10 other members of the training class are fully qualified astronauts.
The group, known as “Fly,” is now eligible to fly on NASA missions to the International Space Station (ISS), Artemis launches to the moon and, if all goes well, even to Mars.
The UAE Space Agency announced earlier this year plans to build an airlock – a specialized doorway – for the “Gateway” of the space station it is developing to one day orbit the moon.
“I want to push humanity further than ever before. I want humanity to return to the moon, and I want humanity to be able to go further and beyond the moon,” Almatrohi said.
“I want to be a part of this journey.”
Although AlMatrooshi is the first to graduate from NASA, other Arab women have participated in private space missions, including Saudi biomedical researcher Rayyanah Barnawi, who flew to the International Space Station with Axiom Space last year, and Egyptian-Lebanese engineer Sara Sabry, who is One of the members of the project. The crew of the 2022 Blue Origin suborbital flight.
Custom space headscarf
Wearing a hijab is part of the Muslim faith, Almatrohi explained, and NASA developed a strategy for her to wear the hijab while donning the agency’s signature white spacesuit and helmet, formally known as the Extravehicular Maneuvering Unit, or extravehicular maneuvering device. EMU), you can cover your hair.
“Once you get on the EMU, you put on a (communications) cap (complete with a microphone and speaker) and it … covers your hair,” she said.
The challenge occurred after Almatrohi took off his regular hijab but before donning his communications hat. To further complicate matters, only specifically authorized materials can be worn inside EMUs.
“The suit engineers ended up sewing me a makeshift hood that I could put on, put on the suit, then put the communications cap on, and then take it off and my hair would be covered. So I really I really appreciate everything they did for me,” Almatrohi said.
Donning the custom-made suit, Almatrosi will be ready to hit the ground running with her fellow astronauts.
NASA plans to return humans to the lunar surface in 2026 with the Artemis 3 mission.
“I think it’s difficult to be an astronaut, no matter what your religious beliefs or background,” she told AFP.
“I don’t think being a Muslim makes it harder. But being a Muslim makes me aware of the contributions of my ancestors, the Muslim scholars and scientists who studied the stars before me.
“Me becoming an astronaut is just continuing to build on the legacy they started thousands of years ago,” Almatrohi said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
