HARTEBEESTHOEK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2023) South Africa is planning to send two female African astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years, South African National Space Agency (SANSA) CEO Humbulani Mudau said on Sunday.
"We would like to send two African women to the International Space Station in the coming years," Mudau said during the talks with Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos.
Roscosmos has announced its plans to boost its space partnership with African countries and sign appropriate agreements during the upcoming Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg from July 27-28.
The Russian space corporation has participated in different international space missions, including the training of foreign astronauts and sending the first UAE astronaut, Hazza Al Mansouri, in October 2019 to spend eight days in space on Russian spacecraft Soyuz. Roscosmos also announced that a female Belarusian cosmonaut would join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and US astronaut Tracy Dyson on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft to the ISS in March 2024.
