UAE's first astronauts begin NASA training

The UAE's first astronauts have started a training programme in the US ahead of their historic mission.

Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi are at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, where they're learning more about various devices onboard the space station and how to handle emergency situations.

Earlier this year Al Mansouri was selected to become the first Emirati to go into space, while Al Neyadi was named as his backup.

Al Mansoori will take part in an eight-day space mission to ISS aboard a Soyuz-MS 15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25 and return to Earth aboard a Soyuz-MS 12.