LONDON: A community center in southwest England has found an unlikely source of funds after reaching out to the ruler of Dubai.
The Godolphin Cross Community Association announced recently that a donation from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum was enough to secure the purchase of a former Methodist chapel for the town’s new community center building.
Villagers contacted the sheikh in September, because his famous Godolphin race-horse stables in Newmarket, England, shares the town’s name. His wife’s office responded via email within a few weeks. They spent the following months negotiating the donation.
The amount of the donation was not disclosed. The association had previously said it was about £65,000 ($85,000) short of its goal of £90,000.
“We showed him our vision for a community center in the village and he was so impressed he decided he would like to help,” said association secretary Paul Gray.
“I don’t know if he’ll visit but he is always welcome,” Gray said. “We’re proof you should never say never.”
Many public spaces in the village have closed, making the donation vital, particularly to youth groups that need a place to meet.
“All of these groups had nowhere to meet,” Gray said. The chapel was the only available space, and without its purchase the “community would cease to function, with nowhere to operate.”
The community association did not immediately release the news because the sheikh, who is also the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, is a “private man.”
The government of Dubai did not respond to a request for comment.
Godolphin Cross’s long-term plan is to raise additional money for renovating costs using more traditional funding sources such as grants.
The community center will host the town’s youth group, coffee mornings and general gatherings.
Dubai ruler comes to the help of English village in need of funds
Dubai ruler comes to the help of English village in need of funds
NASA plans ISS medical evacuation for Jan. 14
- Space station set to be decommissioned after 2030
- NASA and SpaceX target undocking Crew-11 from the International Space Station no earlier than 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 14, with splashdown off California targeted for early Jan. 15 depending on weather and recovery conditions
WASHINGTON: NASA crew members aboard the International Space Station could return to Earth as soon as Thursday, the US space agency said, after a medical emergency prompted the crew to return from their mission early.
“NASA and SpaceX target undocking Crew-11 from the International Space Station no earlier than 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 14, with splashdown off California targeted for early Jan. 15 depending on weather and recovery conditions,” the agency said in a post on X.
Details of the medical evacuation, the first in ISS history, were not provided by officials, though they said it did not result from any kind of injury onboard and that the unidentified crew member is stable and not in need of an emergency evacuation.
The four astronauts on Nasa-SpaceX Crew 11 have been on their mission since Aug. 1. These expeditions generally last around six months, and the crew was already due to return to Earth in the coming weeks.
American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, as well as Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov, would be returning, while American Chris Williams will stay onboard the international body to maintain a US presence.
Officials indicated it was possible the next US mission could depart to the ISS earlier than scheduled, but did not provide specifics.
Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration — including eventual missions to Mars.
The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
