The United Arab Emirates expressed a desire to buy the Soyuz spacecraft from Russia for the flight of its astronauts.
The United Arab Emirates plans to buy the Soyuz spacecraft from Russia to send two cosmonauts into orbit. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the executive director of Roscosmos for manned space programs, Sergei Krikalev. It is expected that the flight will take place in two years.
According to Krikalev, to implement these plans, it will be necessary to assemble a ship that is not tied to the Russian manned program. “We are talking about the purchase of the Soyuz ship from us, that is, two seats in it, because by law, the commander of the Soyuz ship must be a Russian citizen,” he said and added that negotiations are currently underway. "Whether this flight will be two weeks or a month is a matter of discussion," said a representative of Roscosmos.
The first UAE citizen will go into space on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz this fall. He will spend eight days in orbit. Initially, the flight was planned for spring, but due to the accident of the Soyuz-FG rocket in October, the dates had to be moved.
