Tag: Astronaut

  • Namira Saleem returns from space

    Namira Saleem returns from space

    The first Pakistani woman to go into space returns along with two other travelers

    In this fourth commercial spaceflight the other two passengers were British advertising executive Trevor Beattie and American astronomy educator Ron Rosano.

    The flight started with take-off at precisely 8:10 pm PST (1540 GMT) when Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity Space plane lifted off under the wings of its carrier craft called Virgin Mothership (VMS) Eve. Unity was taken to the height at roughly 1624 GMT at an altitude of around 45,000 feet (13,700 meters). Unity then powered its way into suborbital space, reaching its highest point of 54.3 miles from Earth and hit a top speed of Mach 2.95 (nearly three times the speed of sound) during its short trip. The flight ended at 12:43 pm EDT (1643 GMT), when Unity finally touched down at Spaceport America.

    On coming back, Namira posted a picture with the caption: From space back to Earth! First Female Virgin Galactic Founder Astronaut! And many more Firsts!

    Previously she was excited about having used the same spaceflight gear as the one used by the founder of Virgin Galactic’s founder Richard Branson himself back in July 2021.

    Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Masood Khan, also applauded Namira Salim on her feat, saying: “Because of you our nation’s flag fluttered in space today.”

    Who is Namira Salim?
    Namira is a multidimensional personality with interests ranging from singing to space-exploration. Based in Monaco and Dubai, she is the founder of Space Trust and describes herself as the First Female Astronaut at Galactic and the first Asian to have skydived from The Everest. She secured the ticket with Virgin Galactic back in 2006 and the price of the ticket has appreciated to $450,000 since then.

    Read more on this

    Pakistan’s Namira Saleem set to launch into space

  • India’s next space mission: Sun

    After becoming the first country to land a craft on the moon’s south pole, India will be soon launching its first space-based observatory to study the sun.

    According to Al-jazeera, India’s space agency, in an announcement on Monday, said the Aditya-L1 probe, to be launched on September 2, will study solar winds, which can cause disturbances on Earth and are commonly seen as auroras.

    Aditya-L1 is named after the Hindi word for the sun. It will travel about 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) and will take about four months to travel to its observation point, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

    The spacecraft will be fired into a halo orbit in a region of space that will give the craft a continuous clear view of the sun.

    “This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time,” ISRO said.

    As reported by Al-Jazeera, the spacecraft will be carrying seven payloads to observe the sun’s outermost layers – known as the photosphere and chromosphere – including electromagnetic and particle field detectors.

    Previously, NASA and the European Space Agency placed probes into orbit to study the sun.

  • Meet Nora Al-Matrooshi, first Arab woman astronaut in training

    Meet Nora Al-Matrooshi, first Arab woman astronaut in training

    The UAE’s Nora al-Matrooshi is the first Arab woman to start training to be an astronaut, one of two Emiratis picked from thousands of applicants as the Gulf nation looks to the stars.

    According to details, the 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Sharjah has dreamt about space since she was a little girl, learning about planets and stars at school.

    She hoped since childhood to go into space one day. Her sailor ancestors explored the oceans that encouraged her to explore space one day.

    “My mum’s side of the family are sailors. I’d say they explored the ocean. The term ‘astronaut’ means ‘star sailor’ in Greek,” said the softly-spoken Matrooshi.

    Matrooshi and her 33-year-old fellow countryman, Mohammad al-Mulla will later this year go to the United States for the training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

    They now join Sultan al-Neyadi and Hazza al-Mansoori in the Emirati fellowship of astronauts.

    Read More: Meet Manu Bebo, first transgender makeup artist in occupied Kashmir

    The two Emiratis are currently training in-house in the emirate of Dubai, from learning to speak Russian to flying lessons.

    The UAE is a newcomer to the world of space exploration but is rapidly making its mark.

    In September 2019, the oil-rich country sent the first Emirati into space as part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan for an eight-day mission.

    Then in February, its “Hope” probe successfully entered Mars’ orbit on a journey to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

    More recently in September 2020, Abu Dhabi said it planned to launch an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024 which would be the first trip to Earth’s satellite by an Arab country.

    “If I can do it, then you can do it. If no one has done it before you, then just go ahead and be the first,” said Matrooshi.

    “If you’re really passionate about what you’re doing, then you should just work hard for it and look for opportunities.”