Hazza Al Mansoori with other crew members at the at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.

The UAE’s first Emirati Astronaut Hazza Al Mansoori, along with Sultan Al Neyadi, the reserve astronaut, will start their mock mission on Friday, ahead of their launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 25.

The mission is a mandatory two-day final exam for astronauts and cosmonauts at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in the Star City, near Moscow, before they blast off to the ISS.

Hazza will be accompanied by his crewmates Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian commander Oleg Skripochka for the trip onboard a Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft that will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The mock mission is a segment of qualification examinations and simulations for the Russian Soyuz and Russian segment of the ISS.