Watch: UAE analog astronaut Saleh Al Ameri leaves isolation facility after 8 months

Dubai: UAE analog astronaut Saleh Al Ameri – along with three Russian and two American crew members of SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research in the Unique Terrestrial Station) – has left the isolation facility at Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, completing an eight-month mission studying the effects of spaceflight on human physiology and psychology.

SIRIUS-21 crew left the isolation facility this afternoon.

After conducting around 70 scientific experiments over the last eight months, the SIRIUS-21 crew have made new discoveries that will significantly impact the advancement of space exploration for the benefit of humanity. They have gathered new data on how astronauts can cope physically and mentally with long-term isolation, which are required for long-duration space journey.

Al Ameri collaborated with three Russian and two American crew members — Oleg Blinov, Ekaterina Karyakina and Victoria Kirichenko from Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP), and Ashley Kowalski and William Brown from United States space agency, NASA.

The over-arching message of Al Ameri’s mission is that countries with common interests improve various levels of space cooperation and gain shared goals. This is an accomplishment that the UAE would be truly proud of.