Beyond the Headlines: Hazza Al Mansouri and the UAE’s space ambitions

On September 27, 2019, Hazza Al Mansouri became the first Emirati to go to space.

He did it from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the same spot where Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, started his mission from more than 58 years ago.

Back then, in the early years of the space race, Cold War rivals The Soviet Union and the United States were in a technological battle to achieve spaceflight capability, in hopes to secure their scientific and symbolic superiority.

Gagarin went into space 10 years before the UAE was formed in 1971. Since then, 40 more nationalities have left the earth’s atmosphere, the 40th being the UAE.

Although few nations have their own technology to make the journey, the desire to take part in humanity’s expedition into the cold, hostile environment is vast, with many nations spending millions of dollars to take part in the privilege.

But what does space offer them in return? Why does it capture the human imagination and what does it mean for a nation?

Host Suhail Rather looks at the UAE's space programme and where it’s headed. With a human colony on Mars planned for 2117 and a probe headed for the red planet next year, we take a look at what Major Al Mansouri's mission means for the local population.

HEADLINE HERE

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Scoreline

Syria 1-1 Australia

Syria Al Somah 85'

Australia Kruse 40'

Ain Dubai in numbers

126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure

1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch

16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.

9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.

5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place

192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.