The United Arab Emirates has sent its first astronaut to space. That is a step in a budding, ambitious space program for an oil-rich country the size of Maine along the southern side of the Persian Gulf. Next year, it plans to send a robotic spacecraft to Mars, and its leaders talk of colonizing the red planet a century from now.

Emirati officials hope that space will inspire and train a generation of engineers and scientists who can help prepare the country for a post-oil future.

Hazzaa al-Mansoori, a former Emirati F-16 pilot, launched for the International Space Station in a Soyuz space capsule from a Russian spaceport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Also aboard were Jessica Meir of NASA and Oleg Skripochka of Russia. After a quick, six-hour trip, the spacecraft docked with the station at 3:42 p.m. Eastern time.