Nora Al Madrushi Graduated from the program NASA And participate in the tasks EEIThe Luna It is included Marte.
As your forefathers did, Nora Al Madrushi She also studied the stars and from her childhood she dreamed of traveling Luna. This week she became the first Arab female astronaut to graduate from a program NASA And ready to fulfill that desire.
Born in 1993 in Sharjah. United Arab StatesAt school, during a class where they talked about space, the teacher simulated a trip. Luna. He set up a tent like a spaceship in the classroom and the students entered and flew away. Later, they had to go out for a moonwalk.
“We saw her turn off the lights in our classroom and she covered everything with a gray cloth. She told us we were on the surface of the moon. That day stuck in my mind,” he said. AFPShe wears a blue astronaut suit that bears her name and her country's flag.
“I remember thinking: This is amazing, I want to do this, I want to surface Luna. That's when it started,” he said.
Path to becoming an astronaut
A mechanical engineer with experience in the oil industry, Nora was one of two astronauts selected United Arab Emirates Space Agency 2021 to be trained in a program NASAThank you for a collaborative project.
After two years of grueling training, this included spacewalk simulations. Nora and the pilot Muhammad al-Mullah They officially became Emirati astronauts, along with ten applicants from the US space agency.
These members of “The Flies” (Las Moscas) promotion are now eligible for assignments. NASA want International Space Station (ISS), in tasks Artemis want Luna And, if all goes well, Marte.
Class “The Flies”, recent graduates from NASA.Source: AFP
In fact, the Emirati agency announced this year that it would build an airlock – an exit and entry route for the ship. entranceAll around humanity's future first space station Luna.
“I want to take humanity further than ever before. Mankind should return to the moon, humanity should go beyond the moon and be part of that journey,” he explained.
Other Arab women have already participated in private missions to space, such as Saudi Biomedical Rayana BarnaviPart of the second mission Axiom Space to the ISS in 2023 or to the Egyptian Sarah SabriWho commissioned the ship in 2022 Blue appearance NS-22 in a sub-plane.
A special hijab made by NASA
Due to her Muslim faith, Almadrushi covers her hair with a hijab. The NASA When she had to wear that enormous white diving suit with helmet, she devised a plan to keep her hair out of sight. Emu (Extravehicular Mobility Unit, in English).
“Once inside the spacesuit, you have to wear a communications cap (a hood that carries microphones and headsets) that also covers your hair. But first there's a space where I don't wear anything over my hair, and I have to wear it. The communications cap, we had to solve that. ,” he describes.
Inside Emu You can't use it Regular hijab, because only clothing with specific approved materials can be worn. “So engineers NASA They stitched a Hijab Optimized for me, so I can put it on, get into the suit, put on the communications cap, and then take it off. Hijab So my hair is always covered. “I appreciate them doing that for me,” he says.
As part of the mission, the US plans to take astronauts back to the surface of the moon in 2026. Artemis 3According to NASA.
“I think it's difficult to become an astronaut, no matter what your religion or background is. So I don't think it was difficult to be Muslim,” Almadrushi said.
“But being a Muslim, my forefathers, the Muslim scholars and scientists who came before me and who studied the stars and became an astronaut, built on the tradition that they started thousands and thousands of years ago,” he assured.
AFP
