To date, there have been four astronauts of

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

origin, also called "najmonauts" ('najm' meaning 'star' in Arabic). Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

flew in the US

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

in 1985. Syrian astronaut

Muhammed Faris Muhammed Ahmed Faris ( ar, محمد أحمد فارس, ''Muḥammad ʾAḥmad Fāris''; born 26 May 1951) is a Syrian military aviator. He was the first Syrian and the second Arab in space. Career Born in Aleppo, Syria, he was a pilot in the Sy ...

made a space flight in 1987, as part of a joint Syrian-Soviet mission. In 2019

Hazza Al Mansouri Hazza Al Mansouri ( ar, هَزَّاع ٱلْمَنْصُوْرِي, Hazzāʿ Al-Manṣūrī, surname also spelled "Al Mansoori", full name Hazzaa Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansoori () is an Emirati astronaut and the first person from the United Ara ...

of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

flew in the

Soyuz MS-15 Soyuz MS-15 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 25 September 2019, transporting two members of the Expedition 61 crew and a short duration visiting crew member to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-15 was the 143rd flight of a Soyuz spac ...

spacecraft to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

and in 2023 Sultan Al Neyadi from the United Arab Emirates flew to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule.

Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

In 1985, the Arab Organization of Space Communications nominated Sultan bin Salman Al Saud. Originally a civilian pilot holding a commercial pilots licence, Al Saud was born in Riyadh and holds a bachelor's degree of Arts in Media from the University of Denver, Colorado. Al Saud undertook high-level training before his flight, including: how to deploy the Arab satellite at a distance of 320 km above the Earth's surface, as well as how to use a camera from the unit (Hamlad - 500) to take pictures of geological features of the Arabian Peninsula.

Muhammed Faris

is a Syrian astronaut born in Aleppo in 05/26/1951. Faris is the first Syrian astronaut and second Arab into space, flying in the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz m3 ( TM-2) to space station Mir on 22 July 1987 with two Soviet cosmonauts in the program for cooperation in space between Syria and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

.He is credited with carrying the first recorded Earth dirt into space, which was a vial carrying soil from Damascus.

Emirati astronauts

On 25 September 2019,

became the first Emirati to become an astronaut, travelling in the

spacecraft to the

. 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, conducted Earth observation experiments, filmed the first ever tour of the ISS in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and became the first Middle eastern person to be studied following time in microgravity.

Sultan Al Neyadi Sultan Al Neyadi ( ar, سلطان النيادي; born May 23, 1981) is an Emirati astronaut and one of the first two astronauts from the United Arab Emirates, along with Hazza Al Mansouri. Childhood and education Sultan Al Neyadi was born in U ...

became the second Emirati astronaut who traveled to the ISS.

References

{{Spaceflight lists and timelines

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

Muhammed Faris

Emirati astronauts

See also

References