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UAE in space: How to watch Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi return to Earth
Emirati astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi will end his record-breaking mission in space and leave the International Space Station (ISS) at 5.05pm, UAE time, on Saturday, the UAE’s space center has confirmed.
After completing more than 1,000 working hours on ISS, al-Neyadi will make his voy-age back home, alongside NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, with an expected splashdown off the coast of Florida, US, on Sunday at 8.58am, UAE time.
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NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi, from the United Arab Emirates, waves as the crew departs for the launch pad before launch to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., March 1, 2023. (Reuters)
His departure from the orbiting outpost as well as the splashdown will be broadcast live via NASA at www.nasa.gov/naslive and through the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) website at www.mbrsc.ae/live.
The coverage will show the SpaceX Dragon capsule undocking from ISS, followed by the deorbit burn, entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and splashdown.
Al-Neyadi’s six-month sojourn is the longest Arab space mission to date, with the Emirati being the first Arab to perform a spacewalk.
On Thursday, al-Neyadi had posted a touching tribute to his fellow crew members on ISS as he prepared to wrap up his time on the orbiting outpost.
“We began the mission as crewmates, but now we are brothers,” he posted on social networking platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Over the last six months, I gained a new family with whom I shared expertise, traditions, cultures and experienced beautiful and challenging moments while creating unforgettable moments together.”
He later posted a picture of him and his fellow crewmates posing for a floating selfie.
His mission saw al-Neyadi – who is only the second person from his country to fly to space and the first UAE national to be launched from US soil – conduct more than 200 experiments on the orbiting outpost.
Upon his splashdown on Earth, al-Neyadi’s initial days will be dedicated to medical evaluations in the US, after which he will head back to the UAE.
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