<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates named the next two astronauts in its space program Saturday, including the country’s first female astronaut. </p>
<p>Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai who also serves as the autocratically ruled country’s prime minister and vice president, named the two astronauts on Twitter. </p>
<p>He identified Noura al-Matroushi as the UAE’s first female astronaut. The announcement gave no biographical information about her or her male counterpart, Mohammed al-Mulla. </p>
<p>The two had been selected among more than 4,000 applicants in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula that’s also home to Abu Dhabi. </p>
<p>The two will undergo training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. </p>
<p>In 2019, Maj. Hazzaa al-Mansoori became the UAE’s first astronaut in space, spending an eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station. </p>
<p>The Emirates has had other recent successes in its space program. This February, the UAE put its Amal, or Hope, satellite in orbit around Mars, a first for the Arab world. In 2024, the country hopes to put an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. </p>
<p>The UAE also has set the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.</p>
