A US company will on Friday attempt to make the first Moon landing by a privately owned spacecraft, after three failures by other firms in previous years.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines will claim its place in the record books if its Odysseus vehicle touches down softly on the lunar surface.
The success of the IM-1 mission would also mean a giant leap for space agencies, which are looking to contract companies to send their technologies to the Moon.
Landing time
On Tuesday, the company released further details of the planned landing, with Odysseus expected to fire its thrusters and descend to the Moon's surface at 2.49am UAE time.
Live landing coverage would be hosted by Intuitive Machines on its website. The exact time of when the stream will begin is expected to be released closer to landing day.
Creating access to the Moon
Companies have been racing to send their vehicles to the Moon, with the aim of winning contracts from space agencies to send their payloads to the surface.
The UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, for example, is on the hunt for a lander that could take its Rashid 2 rover to the Moon.
But, so far, all Moon-landing attempts made since 2019 by the private sector have failed, including by Israeli and Japanese companies, and another American firm.
Nasa has a Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme that aims create access to the Moon by supporting lunar operating companies.
Intuitive Machines was contracted by the US space agency under that project to take six of its payloads to the Moon's surface, including technology tests space weather and lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy and precision landing.
Nasa also plans to launch more payloads on future flights by Intuitive Machines, including the IM-2 mission planned for later this year and a third mission.
It also had payloads on the Peregrine lunar lander built by Astrobotic.
However, the vehicle experienced a propulsion anomaly shortly after separating from the rocket, causing a fuel leak that made a soft lunar landing impossible.
Only space agencies from five countries have landed successfully on the Moon so far, namely the US, former Soviet Union, China and mostly recently India and Japan.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
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