Palestinian behind Mars drone says visiting home is no small step

Loay Elbasyouni has made a remarkable journey from the Gaza Strip to the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Space engineer Loay Elbasyouni was part of the NASA team that made history this month by launching an experimental helicopter from the surface of Mars. But he said an expedition to his hometown in the Gaza Strip, where posters celebrate his achievement, feels even farther away because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions. “When you deal with electrons and technology, you can calculate things and know their path,” he told The Associated Press news agency in a video interview from his home in Los Angeles. “When you deal with people and politics, you don’t know where things can go.”