Asked & answered: Can you wear a kandura in space?

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Hazzaa, Hazza, kandura, ISS, Emirati, UAE in Space, Hazzaa AlMansoori

Hazzaa is the first Emirati in space, the first Arab to visit the ISS, and now also the first to wear the national dress aboard the ISS.

By Vicky Kapur (From the Executive Editor's desk)

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Published: Tue 1 Oct 2019, 8:00 PM

Last updated: Wed 2 Oct 2019, 5:59 PM

He's the pride of his motherland and fellow citizens. And it makes for a delightful picture... that of Hazzaa AlMansoori in an Emirati kandura in the midst of his other colleagues all sporting tees and trousers. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words - and this one for sure is worth that and more. A proud Emirati, Hazzaa is the first UAE national in space and the first Arab to visit the International Space Station (ISS). Yesterday, he also became the first to wear the national dress aboard the ISS.
Complete with a traditional casual headgear (called the hamdaniya in Arabic), Hazzaa seemed completely at ease in the Emirati national dress 408km away from earth. That look of pride on his face was more than conspicuous in the pictures shared by the Twitter handle of the Russian space agency (@Roscosmos), and by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre).

Among all the experiments and probes that Hazzaa and his colleagues have been undertaking during his eight-day stay on the ISS, it is also somewhat of an Emirati carnival up there complete with a traditional khaleeji food night for the ISS' temporary inhabitants. The halal Emirati food, of course, has been liquefied and stored in cans by Russia's Astrofood or the Space Food Laboratory, to make it fit for consumption at the space station. A perfect ambassador of the Emirati culture, Hazzaa took along with him local delicacies like salona, madrouba, and balaleet (processed and canned/tubed) to share with his crewmates.
A true patriot, Hazzaa also said that he's keen to share his learning for the benefit of his nation and that of mankind, and that he'd want to return to the ISS to conduct more experiments. In his final public chat from the ISS, Hazzaa said his message to the public is that each one of us must set a specific goal and strive to achieve it. Major Hazzaa AlMansoori is scheduled to return to earth tomorrow, landing in one of the three sites in the wilderness of Kazakhstan. What's the first thing that he wants to do upon returning? "Talk to my mother."


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