UAE’s Sultan Al Neyadi arrives at ISS to begin six-month space mission

UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) earlier today, where he will now spend six months on the longest Arab space mission.

All aboard the orbiting laboratory! The four members of our @SpaceX #Crew6 mission have entered the @space_station and were greeted at their welcoming ceremony. Next: a safety briefing and orientation, then the new arrivals are off to catch some sleep. pic.twitter.com/wegjRG0qjs

— NASA (@NASA) March 3, 2023

After the docking of the Dragon spacecraft, Al Neyadi and other team members entered the ISS at 09:43am.

Astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi and his Crew-6 team members onboard the International Space Station, accompanied by the Suhail mascot.#UAE2Space#TheLongestArabSpaceMission

— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) March 3, 2023

Al Neyadi, 41, took off to space as part of NASA’s Space-X Crew-6 mission, at 9.35am on Thursday, March 2.

Read: Lift off: UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi en route to space

The Crew-6 joins the Expedition 68 crew of NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, and Josh Cassada, as well as Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina, NASA said in a blog post.

“Thank you everybody for this opportunity,” said a visibly overjoyed Sultan Al Neyadi onboard the ISS. ” I can’t be happier than this…Seeing old friends in space, gathering as a big family. This is the essence of space exploration.”

أول رسالة من رائد الفضاء سلطان النيادي بعد وصوله إلى محطة الفضاء الدولية. #طموح_زايد #أطول_مهمة_فضائية_في_تاريخ_العرب pic.twitter.com/NHV1JQiYN0

— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) March 3, 2023

This is Al Neyadi’s first trip to space, representing the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. During the mission, the Emirati astronaut will conduct many in-depth and advanced scientific experiments.

An orbiting laboratory, the ISS is a scientific platform where astronauts conduct experiments across multiple disciplines of research, including Earth and space science, biology, human physiology and physical sciences.

In 2020, the ISS celebrated 20 years of continuous human presence aboard the laboratory.