Abdulrahman Al Omairi

United Arab Emirates' first astronaut who advanced space exploration in the Arab world

Abdulrahman Al Omairi (born 1990) made history as the first Emirati astronaut to conduct a spacewalk during the 2021 ISS mission. His work on the NASA-Emirates Mars Mission helped develop critical atmospheric data analysis tools. Al Omairi pioneered Arabic language space communication protocols, enabling real-time translation systems now used in international missions. He co-designed the Hope Probe's solar array deployment mechanism, which became a model for lightweight space structures. His 2019 TEDx talk 'Bridging Cultures Through Space' highlighted STEM education initiatives in Gulf nations. Al Omairi's establishment of the UAE Space Cadets program has trained over 5000 students in rocket engineering and astrophysics since 2015.