UAE’s Al Mansoori returns after space mission

A three-man crew including an Emirati who became the first Arab to reach the International Space Station returned to Earth safely yesterday and were in good shape, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

Hazzaa al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates touched down in the Kazakh steppes at 1059 GMT along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who both survived a failed launch to the ISS last year.

“The crew that returned to Earth is feeling well,” Roscosmos said immediately after the landing.

Hague and Ovchinin completed a 203-day mission aboard the lab while Mansoori’s two crewmates from his September 25 launch -- Russia’s Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jessica Meir -- are staying on as part of a six-member team.

Although Mansoori’s mission was short -- eight days in total -- it has been the source of great pride in the UAE, a newcomer to the world of space with ambitions to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021.

Mansoori has been active on Twitter where he shared photos of the UAE and Mecca -- Islam’s holiest site -- from the space station.