UAE mobile networks change name: Here's why

Have you noticed any change on your phones today?

UAE's telecom companies on Wednesday changed their network names to '1stUAEAstro' to mark the historic journey of first Emirati astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

On Wednesday, September 25, 2019, at 5:57pm the first Emirati astronaut Hazzaa AlMansoori will be launched on board the Soyuz Launch Vehicle, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Space Center in Kazakhstan, to board the International Space Station.

The UAE Astronaut Programme was launched in April 2017 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, with the objective to train and prepare the first Emirati astronaut corps to be sent to space for various scientific missions.

Hazzaa AlMansoori and Sultan AlNeyadi are the first batch of astronauts from this programme. They trained in the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow under an agreement between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre and Roscosmos for a mission to the International Space Station on 25th September 2019, for which Hazzaa AlMansoori is the main astronaut and Sultan AlNeyadi is his back up.