The names of the two citizens — one of whom will take part in the arduous mission and the other a backup — will be announced soon, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre said.
The pair have been selected from a shortlist of ten candidates announced last year. The mission will involve an international crew of six people living inside the NEK experimental complex in Moscow for eight months. Sirius 20/21, the official name of the project, will measure the psychological and physiological impact on humans living in the extreme environments that astronauts would face during space travel.