At least (as of now) UAE is allied with Israel against Iran...
So what exactly did the UAE contribute?
“The UAE is not doing Hope entirely on its own. Besides purchasing the H-2A launch from Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MBRSC partnered with several universities in the United States, such as Arizona State University, the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado. Those universities collaborated on the spacecraft and its instruments.”
“NASA is also supporting the mission by providing Hope access to the Deep Space Network for communications.”
What a gesture of international friendship it would be for a goodwill VIP team to get on a rocket like that:
Hillary & Bill, Huma, Brenner, Clapper,Comey, the Squad, Warren, Maxine, Pelosi.... On their way to space.
Mention later by a dim radio message to them: It’s one way.
This is clearly the result of Barack Obama’s direction to NASA to make “reaching out to the Muslim world” a top priority.
I wonder if the will be able to get a photograph of a US flag for Sheila Jackson-Lee...