- Sultan Al Neyadi will depart for ISS for a six-month mission.
- Al Neyadi is a member of the four-person SpaceX Crew-6 mission.
- Al Neyadi will be the first Arab astronaut to fly a long-duration space mission.
Dubai: UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi will depart for the International Space Station (ISS) on February 26 for a six-month mission, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced on Thursday.
Al Neyadi, who will be the second Emirati in space after Hazzaa AlMansoori, will conduct “various scientific experiments and research,” according to MBRSC.
Al Neyadi is a member of the four-person SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which also includes NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. This will be Hoburg’s, Fedyaev’s, and AlNeyadi’s first space mission, and Bowen’s fourth.
The Falcon 9 launch rocket and the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft that will transport the crew to the ISS will take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Launch Complex 39A.
The mission is NASA’s (US space agency’s) sixth crew rotation flight, and it involves a US commercial spacecraft carrying a science expedition aboard the microgravity laboratory.
First Arab on a long space mission
Al Neyadi will be the first Arab astronaut to fly a long-duration space mission. He and AlMansoori, the first Emirati to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight-day mission in September 2019, have completed European Space Agency (ESA) Columbus training for the SpaceX Crew 6 mission.
Al Neyadi will join Expedition 69 aboard the space station as a flight engineer.
The upcoming mission will also make the UAE only the eleventh country in the world to send astronauts on a long-term mission to space. According to MBRSC, Al Neyadi “will conduct numerous in-depth and advanced scientific experiments as part of the second mission of the UAE Astronaut Programme that will pave the way for future UAE missions and further push the capabilities for a journey beyond Earth.”
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