United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the country was set to train its first female astronaut, Saturday.

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On Twitter, he said Noura Al-Matrooshi was set to join fellow recruit Mohammed Al-Mulla at the UAE's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre program.

He noted the two would train with NASA in the tweet.

Al-Matrooshi tweeted: "The nation gave me unforgettable moments today. I aim to work hard to script historical moments and achievements that will be etched forever in the memory of our people. I thank our wise leadership and the team of the UAE Astronaut Programme. Preparations and work begin now."

According to a video posted by the space center, Al-Matrooshi earned her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the United Arab Emirates University and currently serves as an engineer at the country's National Petroleum Construction Company.

Meanwhile, German state-owned international news broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported the UAE's first mission to Mars was set to become the fifth to reach the planet and enter its orbit, Tuesday.

According to the DW report, the mission would also be the first by an Arab state.

UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that even if the mission failed to enter the red planet's orbit, "we've already made history. This is the farthest point in the universe to be reached by Arabs throughout their history ... Our goal is to give hope to all Arabs that we are capable of competing with the rest of the world."

UAE Space Agency head and Advanced Sciences Minister Sarah Al-Amiri told DW, "Our science team is 80% women. They are there based on merit and based on what they contribute towards the design and development of the mission.

"I myself have not faced any adversity throughout my career, be it working at the space center from almost 12 years ago, all the way to becoming a minister within the cabinet.

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The sanctions announced by the State and Treasury departments targeting the agency and two of its affiliates follow the explosion Thursday of a rocket at Iran's Imam Khomeini Space Center in what an Iranian official said was a technical malfunction during a test. Following the explosion, US President Donald Trump tweeted a surveillance image depicting the apparent aftermath of the incident and declared that the US had nothing to do with what transpired at the launch site.

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With the latest sanctions, the Trump administration can subject foreign companies and governments – including international space cooperation organizations – to penalties if they have any involvement with the Iranian space agency. It would also freeze any of the agency's assets in US jurisdictions, although there aren't likely to be any given the state of relations between the two countries.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the that "urgency of the threat" was underscored by Iran's recent attempt to launch a space vehicle. "The United States will not allow Iran to use its space launch program as [a] cover to advance its ballistic missile programs," he said in a statement announcing the sanctions.

In a tweet, early Wednesday, Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi appeared to dismiss the latest sanctions. He posted a picture of stars in space, writing: "I can't even locate the US in this picture, let alone sanctions on Space!"

"The universe & #BrightFuture belong to everyone, not to a few! Stop imitating #Thanos, Donald Trump!" Jahromi wrote, referring to the purple-skinned villain of the latest "Avenger" films.

Jahromi, the first Iranian government minister to be born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is considered a rising political star himself within Iran's Shiite theocracy. He's increasingly directly challenged Trump in comments in interviews and online, leading to speculation that he may run in Iran's 2021 presidential election.

US officials said the move was not directly related to last week's explosion but that the surveillance image provided evidence of the US assertion that the Iranian space program is used to develop missiles, including ones capable of carrying nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction over long distances.

The sanctions are part of the Trump administration's escalating campaign of economic and diplomatic measures against Iran since unilaterally withdrawing last year from an international accord that was intended to curb the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran insists that it is developing rockets to launch satellites into space, which it has done twice since 2013. The explosion marked the third failure involving a rocket at the Iranian center, which has raised suspicions of sabotage in Iran's space program.

Iran government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Monday the explosion was "a technical matter and a technical error."

Commercially available satellite images by Planet Labs Inc. and Maxar Technologies showed a black plume of smoke rising above a launch pad on Thursday, with what appeared to be the charred remains of a rocket and its launch stand. In previous days, satellite images had shown officials there had repainted the launchpad blue.

The blast followed failed launches of the Payam and Doosti satellites in January and February. A separate fire at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in February also killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.

Iran is preparing to launch the Nahid-1, a communication satellite, into space.

The US alleges such satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution calling on Iran to not carry out any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

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