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Salama Albahrani, Mohamed Al Naqbi, Mansour Al Kaabi and Fakhra Al Hammadi spent one week at NASA Space Camp and earned first place in the rocket launch challenge

The setting is the NASA Space Camp at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The mission for the budding UAE astronauts is to build a rocket and successfully launch it into orbit. The catch?

An egg needs be placed inside the rocket and returned to earth in pristine condition.

“It all revolved around quote, unquote ‘keeping our eggs-tronaut safe’,” smiles 16-year-old Salama Albahrani, who along with Mohamed Al Naqbi, Mansour Al Kaabi and Fakhra Al Hammadi, all aged 17, made up the UAE team sent to the NASA Space Camp.

“We managed to do that,” adds Mansour. “It was scored out of 950 – with keeping the egg safe worth 500 of that – and we scored 950. First place.”

Indeed, not only did the UAE team get first place, but they also made history at the US Space and Rocket Center.

“Our rocket launched really far, and the instructor said we hit a new space camp record for our height – we were Space Camp Hall of Fame for that,” says Salama.

For each of Salama, Mohamed, Mansour and Fakhra, the opportunity of a lifetime through NASA on the Endeavour Scholarship came courtesy of the ADNOC Accelerator Program – RO’YA. Since 2021, the two-year professional development program in partnership with Khalifa University – which was designed for Grade 10 UAE students who show real potential – has become central to ADNOC’s commitment to nurturing national talent.

The NASA Space Camp is one example of the many opportunities available through RO’YA’s STEM/AI-based curriculum, which is fitting as ADNOC aims to become the world’s most AI-enabled energy company. The program – RO’YA means vision in Arabic – for UAE Nationals is about collective impact, not just personal growth, and helps prepare students for admission to top-tier universities around the globe.

To earn their place on the one-week NASA trip in July, Salama, Mohamed, Mansour and Fakhra were whittled down from 1,000 RO’YA candidates following a series of evaluations, including maths tests, critical thinking and an interview. “I couldn’t believe I was chosen; it felt like a miracle,” says Mohamed, with Salama adding it was “absolutely surreal”.

All of them have an interest in pursuing a career in space following the RO’YA initiative. “I came away from the camp knowing exactly what I want to do with my life,” says Mohamed, with Mansour commenting: “I want to follow in the footsteps of Hazza Al Mansouri, the first UAE astronaut in space.”

At Space Camp, following in the footsteps of Hazza took one step closer, with classes including “many practical assessments on how astronauts actually survive in space,” says Fakhra. In addition, the teenagers, who were joined by eight other teams from across the world, learned about space evolution, the history of spacesuits, creating heat shields, and leading practice missions as astronauts, pilots and engineers.

Other key learnings included teamwork, communication and discipline. “At Space Camp, you sleep there, eat there, and everything is about time; we’d a schedule for everything,” says Mohamed.

Everything the ADNOC Accelerator Program – RO’YA graduates, who recently graduated along with this year’s cohort at a ceremony at the Abu Dhabi Energy Center, learned at Space Camp was put to good use. But before entering the Hall of Fame through their history-making rocket launch, one final piece of detail was required. On one side of the rocket the team placed the UAE flag, and on the other wrote ‘United Arab Emirates’.

“We passed with flying colors,” says Salama, “and it was exhilarating seeing our hard work pay off in such an amazing way.”

She adds: “The RO’YA program is really helping students excel and I felt so empowered by the environment I was in. We wouldn’t have accomplished this if it wasn’t for ADNOC and Khalifa University making this amazing program. I’d very, very much recommend that other students apply because it genuinely is life changing.

“At NASA Space Camp, they talked to us a lot about their upcoming Artemis program to go to Mars and the moon. They showed us the first few countries that signed in partnership with the US, and the UAE was one of the first. It was such a proud moment to see my country genuinely advancing space exploration in such a big way.

“We have the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center sending Emirati astronauts to space. And it’s so inspiring to me because, since I was little, I’ve been seeing astronauts that look like me, that talk like me – and it makes me feel like anything is possible.”