‘Armstrong of the Arab World’: Syria’s first astronaut Mohammad Faris dies in exile

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‘Armstrong of the Arab World’: Syria’s first astronaut Mohammad Faris dies in exile

By Eyad Kourdi, CNN (CNN) — Mohammad Faris, known as the “Armstrong of the Arab World” and Syria’s only astronaut, died at the age of 72 in exile in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Friday, from complications of a heart attack he suffered a month ago, according to a close friend who spoke to CNN over the phone. In 1987, Faris, a pilot in the Syrian Air Force, spent eight days in space with the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos spaceflight program. Fari…