UAE telecom operators Etisalat and du changed their service provider name to 1stUAEAstro in celebration of the journey of first Emirati astronaut Hazzaa Al Mansoori to space.
In an historic moment, Hazzaa Al Mansoori is the first Emirati astronaut to go to space. Hazzaa departed on Wednesday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) just before midnight.
Al Mansoori, former Emirati F-16 aircraft pilot is now the first UAE national in space aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft. He is accompanied by Russian commander Oleg Skripocha and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
Mansoori will spend a total of eight days carrying out various experiments on the ISS while his comrades will continue their mission until spring 2020.
